A Fallen Angel
by FallenAngelsRevenge
Summary: When Naruto graduated, Mizuki said some things. Things that shouldn't have been said. What if Naruto took the information a bit more seriously? Naruto's not hiding behind his mask anymore, and he's going to proove it. Pairings undecided.
1. My Curse

~~Motivation: I listened to these songs almost constantly while I typed this chapter and began the story, in order of the effect they had on the story, they are...

My Curse – Killswitch Engage

Orange Range – Asterisk

Lonely Day – System of a Down

Chop Suey – System of a Down

~~A/N: Hey, it's your author here, just saying that this is my first fanfic EVER so I'm really eager to get this thing started. I've actually tried to get one up a few times, but it never seemed to turn out right. This is the first I've actually followed through with, so hopefully it turns out OK. Now that that's over with, on with the story!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto… If I did, it probably wouldn't have played out the way it did…**

~Fallen Angel~

~A Naruto Fanfiction~

_This is my curse (The longing)  
>This is my curse (Time)<br>This is my curse (The yearning)  
>This is my curse<em>

_My Curse - Killswitch Engage_

~Chapter 1: My Curse~

Naruto Uzumaki sat on top of the Hokage Monument, watching the sunset in the waning hours of the evening, pondering on what he should do. He sat cross-legged, his signature orange jumpsuit blending in with the orange and yellow hues of the darkening sky.

In all regards, Naruto should've been relatively happy. He had helped to stop a very bad case of treason, graduated from the academy (though it was unorthodox), learned an advanced technique, and saved his favorite teacher all within one night.

A slight pinch interrupted his thoughts as what used to be a large gash on his chest finally sealed itself together, thanks to his miraculous healing powers. _'No, not mine, the Kyūbi's'._ He thought bitterly. That night he had also learned about his 'burden'.

'_Less of a burden, more of a curse,'_ He decided. At least it finally explained why he was hated by almost every person in Konoha. It finally explained the glares and curses he received from the civilian population practically every day. The constant murmurs of "What's _he _doing here?", "Why is he even allowed inside the village?", or "I don't know why he's even trying to be a ninja, he'll never be allowed to graduate," finally had meaning behind them. He hadn't noticed before, as he'd learned to tune them out after so many years, but with the new knowledge of his 'burden' it seemed impossible now.

He sighed. Why did everyone have to hate him so much? Couldn't they see that he was only the container, the jailer, and not the Kyūbi itself? The people of this village were idots.

As he pondered, he thought back to what had compelled him to come to the top of the monument in the first place.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

Naruto's eyes creaked open as he woke from his dreams of foxes and traitors. The first thing he noticed was an irritating wailing coming from the alarm clock on his bedside table. He gave a surprised shout as he reached out his hand, searching for the sleep button, and instead rolled off of the bed in tangled heap of sheets and flailing limbs.

After several minutes of mortal combat with his bedsheets, and effectively awake, he stood up and finally silenced the annoying clock. He never really woke up this early, but he wanted to make sure he wouldn't be late for team assignments today. He was an official genin of Konoha now, and being a ninja came with responsibilities.

He groggily slumped into his shower and let the cold water run over himself for a few moments so he could fully wake up before proceeding with the rest of his morning rituals, which included finishing his shower and brushing his teeth, to keep that 'Nothing you say will affect me' smile of his bright and shiny.

He gathered what little gear he actually had, which now included Iruka's old headband, and left his apartment. As usual, he locked the door (not that it really did much) and headed out into the semi-crowded streets of Konoha.

As he took his time strolling down the busy streets snaking towards the academy, he received the glares and mutters he had come to expect from the villagers. Most of them failed to notice the worn headband he now bore with a smile, and those who did figured it was a trick of some kind, since in their minds there was _obviously_ no way Naruto could've graduated.

As he walked, he started thinking about that night. About when Mizuki had revealed his 'burden'. It may have just been because of the way he had said it, but there were so many different emotions and feelings running through Naruto at that moment… emotions he hadn't felt in a long time.

He had created a kind of… outer wall against these emotions. Kind of like a second Naruto. This second Naruto was his main line of defense against the hate filled glares and shouts of the villagers. He rarely let anyone see his true side. The side of him filled with sadness, loneliness, and to a certain extent hate. Hate for the village that had shunned him. Mizuki had been the first person in a long time to break through that wall, if only momentarily. However, a broken wall that is constantly assaulted is never repaired. The resentment and ignorance of the villagers saw to that.

But he shouldn't start thinking too deeply about these things.

When he shook himself out of his thoughts and regained awareness of his surroundings, it took him a few seconds to notice he was standing in front of the academy. As he entered the familiar building he checked the clock mounted on the wall.

Damn, he only had a minute until team assignments started! The one thing he actually woke up early for (besides ramen) and he was still going to be late!

Scowling at himself for losing track of time he rushed to academy classroom, shoved the door open, ran inside, and slammed the door closed loudly.

The rest of the room, however, was deathly quiet, and everyone was gaping (and in some cases glaring) at him… was he late?

The silence was broken by the bell signaling the start of class, startling everyone out of their stunned silence. "What is _Naruto _doing here?"

And so began the onslaught of questions, shouts, and outright insults about various things related to Naruto and graduation.

"I thought he failed the graduation exam?" shouted one graduate from the back of the room.

"He did, I took the test right after him! They were talking about him failing for the third time," was the response.

"Well then why is he even here?"

The conversations shouted across the room over the din put a damper on Naruto's mood.

Luckily Iruka saved his mood from taking too much damage. "Alright everyone that's enough, quiet down!" he shouted over the ruckus while gesturing for silence. "Naruto officially graduated from the academy a few days ago, the night of the graduation exams," he said sternly, as if daring the class to speak against him.

Iruka put a comforting hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Well Naruto, you got here just in time," he said with a slight smile. "Why don't you go take a seat so we can get started?" he gestured to the rest of the class.

Naruto scanned the classroom until he realized that there was only one open seat… and it was next to Sakura and Sasuke.

He sighed. _'Well, shit.' _He cursed under his breath. He could already tell he was going to have a bad day.

He grudgingly walked up to the seat, dragging his feet with each step.

When Sakura realized where he was headed, she stopped fawning over Sasuke for a second (A surprise, really) and glared at Naruto before returning to her favorite pastime.

Naruto reluctantly sat down next to Sakura, though he was slightly cheered up by the sight of his crush.

Then Sasuke decided to speak up. "I don't care what you or Iruka-sensei says you don't belong here dobe," he said with his hands clasped in front of his face, staring straight ahead looking uninterested like always.

"Just shut up teme."

Naruto didn't feel like taking any crap from Sasuke today, and his response was automatic, so he hadn't thought about how Sakura would react… if he had, he probably wouldn't have said anything.

"What was that, Naruto?" she shrieked, interrupting Iruka's speech and earning looks from the rest of the class. "You will NOT badmouth Sasuke! He's right anyway, you don't belong here!"

Iruka was about to reprimand Sakura, partly for interrupting his speech, but mostly because she had shouted at Naruto, but he never got the chance.

"You can shut up and back off too Sakura."

His voice was barely audible, but the silence was so complete that everyone in the class heard it. Naruto never said things like that to Sakura right? Apparently, he had changed the night he graduated.

"W-What?" she managed to stutter in response.

"I told you to be quiet and back off," he stated calmly, head down, his hair shadowing his face.

Sakura sat in shocked silence until Iruka cleared his throat rather loudly as most of the class was staring and he wanted to get back on track. Everyone woke from their silent stupor and returned their attention to their sensei.

"Let's get on with this, we don't have much time left because of the interruption, so I guess I'll have to skip my graduation speech," Iruka said pouting slightly. Some of the class chuckled.

Most of them cheered. Iruka sighed.

"Well then, let's get started. Team 1…"

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

"…And team 7 will consist of Naruto Uzumaki…"

At the mention of his name Naruto's head shot up off the desk a little too quickly as he grew dizzy.

"Sakura Haruno…"

At the mention of her name, and upon realizing she was on Naruto's team, Sakura hung her head comically. Against everyone's expectations, Naruto… did nothing.

_'Wow, he really has changed,'_

"And Sasuke Uchiha."

At this point Sakura leapt up and cheered, while Naruto hung his head just like Sakura had moments before.

"Shit…" he mumbled. However, he mumbled it just loud enough for everyone, including Iruka to hear. _'Damn, I'm in for it now,' _he thought, bracing himself for a lecture or a reprimand.

He never got one. Instead Iruka just chuckled a little and smiled sadly at Naruto. "Sorry, but I didn't make up the teams Naruto," He said with the sad smirk still on his face.

As Iruka finished up the list and left to let the jounin pick up their teams, Sakura glanced at Naruto repeatedly, trying to figure out what had happened to him.

_'He's never been like this before. He'd usually be asking me out or berating Sasuke.'_

After a little while (Well more like a few hours) they were the only ones left in the classroom.

Sakura was absolutely fuming. "I swear to Kami, if he keeps us waiting for 5 more minutes I'll beat him into next week."

**'Shannaro! This is time we could be spending with Sasuke-kun!' **chimed her mental self.

Then, almost as if he had heard Sakura, a man opened the door and walked into the room. He wore what could be described as generic jounin equipment. A dark green vest, black pants and undershirt, with white bandages wrapped around his right leg. What really stood out to the three genin was his face, or rather that they could barely see it at all. He had a mask, matching the color of his pants and undershirt that covered the bottom portion and his headband came down and covered another half of what was left. All you could really see was the upper right third of his face. That and his grey almost white hair, which seemed to defy gravity.

_'Hmmm. I thought for sure Naruto would try pranking me… Oh well, all the better for me,' _He raised his hand in greeting. "I'm Kakashi, and I'll be your jounin sensei while you're genin. We're meeting on the roof, so don't take too long," he said, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"He tells _us _not to take too long?" Naruto grumbled before getting his head up off the desk and practically dragging himself out of the room.

Sakura silently nodded her agreement and follow, with Sasuke close behind.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

"Well then, let's hear a little about each of you. Your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams, that sort of thing," their new sensei said to them with his patented eye smile.

Sakura raised her hand, and their sensei nodded towards her.

"What are we supposed to say? Can you show us first, so we know what to do?"

His face, at least what they could see of it, took on a thoughtful look. After a few minutes of careful contemplation, he responded. "Well, why not? My name is Kakashi Hatake. I like many things, and dislike many others. My hobbies… well I really don't feel like telling you that. My dreams…" he trailed off and left the rest hanging.

_'So all we really found out was his name' _the three of them thought in unison.

"Anyway, we'll start with you on the right," he said, pointing at Naruto.

A few days ago, Naruto would have started on about ramen, just like Sakura and Sasuke currently thought he would. However, in light of the recent days' events and his new knowledge, ramen was surprisingly the least on his mind right now.

"My name," he started calmly, almost quietly, "is Naruto Uzumaki; I like few things… one of them being Iruka sensei, as well as anybody else I can trust. My dislikes… are people who judge others for things they have no control over, and people who betray their friends and their village. My hobbies consist mainly of pranking people. And my dream…" here he regained his usual cheerful manner, "is to surpass the Hokage's, all of them, even the Yondaime!" He shouted, adjusting his headband a little.

Both Sasuke and Sakura were shocked, the latter more than the former, for she was the only one who had noticed he had said _nothing_ about her throughout the entire speech. Was this the same Naruto as only a few days before? It didn't seem like it to either of them.

Kakashi interrupted their thoughts. "Hmm, not what I was expecting, but OK. Next."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha… There are many things I don't like, and I don't particularly like anything," Sakura's face looked a little downcast at this. "And my dream is not a dream, it is an ambition: The restoration of my clan, and to kill a certain man."

Both Sakura and Naruto gave Sasuke looks, Sakura's awed and somewhat shocked, Naruto's annoyed and irritated.

_'That's to be expected.'_ Kakashi thought. "OK, and lastly the girl,"

"I'm Sakura Haruno, and the thing, well _person_ I like is…" At this point she glanced repeatedly at Sasuke and squealed quietly. "My hobbies…" Another squeal. "My dreams for the future…" The biggest squeal yet. Then suddenly: "I dislike Naruto!" she yelled bunching her fists. "He's rude, he never leaves me alone, and he's the dobe of the class!"

Naruto looked down, his fists clenched beside him. _'I'm starting to wonder why I bother chasing after her. I have as much chance with her as she does with Sasuke.'_ He thought bitterly.

Kakashi noticed the look. _'Well, better get on with this before they attack each other.'_ He sat forward a little, catching the three ninja's attention. "That's enough of that. We will start our first assignment tomorrow."

Naruto's face lit up. "Oooh, what's the assignment Kakashi-sensei? Tell us, tell us!" The others seemed to silently agree, though weren't willing to show it.

"It's not a mission; it's… a graduation exam." He said, pausing for effect.

"But we already took the graduation exam! I thought we were supposed to get cool missions now?" Once again the others silently agreed.

"The exam you already took was just to weed out the weak ones. This is the true graduation exam, and you must pass to continue your shinobi career. You must fight me. Be warned: This test has a 66% chance of failure. Anyone who fails will get sent back to the academy,"

Naruto was silently fuming. He had already taken the graduation exam. He had defeated a chunin traitor! Why did he have to take another stupid exam?

"Oh and you'd better skip breakfast tomorrow. Otherwise… you'll throw up. The rest of the info is on these printouts. Don't be late," He disappeared in a plume of smoke after handing out the papers.

Sakura instantly took the opportunity to ignore Naruto and ask Sasuke out on a date, which he promptly rejected in favor of going off to wherever he goes to do... whatever it is Sasuke does in his free time.

Naruto decided to get home quickly so he would have more time for training. He had to beat Kakashi the next day, he couldn't fail!

As Sakura walked down to the busy street below while pondering how to get Sasuke to go out with her, she realized Naruto hadn't even talked to her on the roof.

_'He didn't ask me out? Whatever, more time to see Sasuke-kun!'_ Maybe she would stop and get Sasuke a gift…

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

Naruto was walking through the streets of Konoha yet again, after a hard day of training and formulating strategies for defeating Kakashi. He was a jounin after all; Naruto couldn't just charge in and expect to win, even with shadow clones.

Naruto was jolted out of his thoughts as he ran into somebody, knocking her to the ground. He then noticed the person he had just knocked down had pink hair, and he could only hope it wasn't the one person he knew who had pink hair… But apparently even Kami hated him. 'Well, I'm in for it now'.

As Sakura got up off the ground, Naruto could practically see the tick mark on her forehead. Before he could offer an explanation, he was slugged in the face and sent flying backwards into one of the vendor's stalls on the side of the street, the wood splintering and cracking as he crashed through the flimsy build.

"Hey, what gives kid?" shouted the now former stall owner, shaking his fist at Naruto. "Do you know what you just destroyed? You're going to pay for that, you brat!"

Naruto was on his feet in an instant, holding his hand up defensively. "N-n-no! You don't understand! It's not my fault!" He stuttered quickly.

"I don't care whose fault it is, _you_ destroyed my stall and _you_ are going to pay for it, one way or another." He said, cracking his knuckles. Naruto quickly realized just how large this man was. He looked more like a blacksmith than a stall owner. He could probably hit harder than Sakura when she was angry, and that was saying something.

Said pink haired girl had by now recovered from the fall and stomped up to Naruto again.

"Come on Sakura, you gotta tell this guy it wasn't my fault!" He shouted in growing anxiety. Other villagers were beginning to notice the argument, as well as just who was in it. Many had stopped to watch and some had decided to side with the vendor, though that wasn't very surprising to Naruto considering his… reputation.

At this point a surprisingly strong fist hit him square in the back, knocking Naruto forward and onto his hands and knees. Before he could recover another fist belonging to the man whose stall Naruto had destroyed impacted with his face and sent him several feet backwards into a crowd of angry people, several of which grabbed him and succeeded in pinning him down.

'_Dammit, if I retaliate and fight these guys I'll get into even _more _trouble'_ Naruto thought with a frown.

Several of the citizens and vendors were now walking towards him with menacing looks; some of them were even pulling sharp objects out of who-knows-where. Naruto was pretty sure he had caught a glimpse of at least one person pulling out a butcher's knife…

"You're going to pay for what you've done, demon!" Many of the bystanders cheered at this. Much of the crowd now had various weapons out, whether they were rusty kunai, kitchen knives, or some rock they had picked up off the ground. "You took my daughter away from me you demon!" Frantically, Naruto looked around for a way to escape. He spied a fair-sized block of wood that was probably going to be used for repairing the nearby roof it was sitting on.

Naruto quickly tried to work his arms free to do the seals for the jutsu, but the villagers holding him down were just too strong. The man whose stall he had crashed into earlier came out of the crowd with that butcher's knife he had seen earlier, advancing towards Naruto menacingly. "I guess I'll have to thank that pink haired girl for giving me an excuse to do this," he said with a smirk.

Just before the man swung the cleaver down, the villagers let go of Naruto, so as not to get hit if the guy's aim was off a little, of if the _demon_ tried something. Naruto tried using this to bring his arms together and do the seals for the Kawarimi, but he wasn't fast enough.

Before he could even bring his hands together, the butcher's knife came down into his chest. Luckily it didn't have enough force to get through his rib cage, but it hurt like _hell_.

Naruto shouted, but tried to ignore the pain and do the hand seals, and just as Naruto replaced himself with the block of wood, he heard several loud thumps that sounded suspiciously like several large knives, rocks, and various pointy objects impacting a block of wood.

Before the mob could see where he had gone he ripped the butcher's knife out of his chest (which probably wasn't the best idea considering he had just done more damage), threw it off the roof – away from the mob of course, he didn't want to get busted for 'Harming an innocent civilian' – and jumped to the nearest roof in the opposite direction of the mob, not noticing the utterly shocked look on Sakura's face as she walked away from the mob, shaken at what she had just witnessed, her gift to Sasuke lying forgotten in the street.

After several minutes of traveling, Naruto finally reached his apartment complex. He had been given this apartment by the Sandaime Hokage himself after he had been thrown out of the orphanage, not that anybody really cared. If it was his, they hated it.

Speaking of which, he noticed several lines of graffiti scrawled across his door, which happened to be broken off of its hinges, ranging from "demon scum" to "child killer". He sighed. _'At least they're coming up with some new shit, instead of the same "demon" crap every time'_ He thought.

He pushed the broken door open and slowly walked into the apartment.

Compared to how much damage they usually did, it wasn't that bad. His furniture was broken but it wasn't that big of a deal. The walls were mostly intact, even if there was graffiti all over it, just like the door. The damage was pretty much the same throughout the entire apartment. However, when he took a closer look at his bedroom, he noticed a broken picture frame lying face down on the floor along with broken glass. There was a ripped piece of paper pinned to the wall with some sharp object; Naruto didn't really care what it was.

Naruto slowly picked up the picture frame. He recognized it. It was a gift given to him by the Sandaime. The picture was a picture of Naruto, Iruka, the Teuchi's, and the Sandaime, with Naruto giving a genuine smile in the middle.

Or at least it used to be. Naruto finally took a closer look at the picture pinned to the wall. It was part of the picture that belonged in the picture frame lying on the floor.

The people who had trashed his apartment had ripped the picture into three pieces. The one currently pinned to the wall showed Naruto by himself. They had carefully ripped the picture so that no part of anyone else was in the picture. Graffiti above the picture said "You don't deserve anything, demon,"

Naruto gritted his teeth, his fisted clenched at his side, willing the tears not to come.

But of course, they did. With a cry of both extreme rage and heart-wrenching sorrow Naruto threw the frame to the ground and leapt out the window.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

As he finally reached a decision, he slowly stood. If that's what they wanted, he wouldn't disappoint.

He straightened and looked down upon the village that had shunned him from birth. They had sunned him for something he had no control over. Many wanted him dead. Maybe they were right… maybe he was a demon. Maybe he shouldn't have friends, or family.

Before he could turn back on his sudden decision, he slowly walked forward, building speed as he moved. He was vaguely aware of a sound, in the back of his head, but he ignored it, just like he had ignored all the villagers for so many years.

Before he knew it there was no ground beneath his feet, and the feeling of weightlessness overtook him. He felt like he could fly, and he twisted his body towards the sky, looking up at the side of the cliff as he fell, down, down, down. Maybe there was a place for him up there. Then again, his burden would probably drag him to hell.

Again, he was vaguely aware of something in the back of his head, a voice. Except this time it was louder, and it sounded angry, almost fearful. He couldn't make out the words. He watched the ground rushing up at him. What was it like to die?

Abruptly, a surge of intense power flowed through him. His vision tunneled, and his body moved seemingly of its own mind, like it was trying to save itself. It didn't matter anyway. The ground was so close, and he was going so fast there was no way he could survive the impact. He felt drowsy, like he could sleep for an eternity…

The last thing he remembered before he blacked out was the sharp image of a snarling fox's head, and that voice shouting angrily at him.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

~~A/N: So? What did you guys think of my very first chapter on this site EVER? Not to be a review hog but... PLEASE REVIEW! Gotta know how I did, right? :P


	2. New Ties

~A/N: Well, here's chapter 2 to my first fanfic on the site. I always thought people exaggerated when they said reviews keep an authors mind going but... now I know how they feel :P Also, I like to write ahead, and I'm not going to make any major changes to the chapters I already have written unless it's VITAL that it changes, or I really want to change it. If you don't like how the story goes, then don't read it.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto… If I did, it probably wouldn't have played out the way it did…**

~Fallen Angel~

~A Naruto Fanfiction~

_Have not the strongest_  
><em>and closest ties been bound so long <em>  
><em>I've called upon them <em>  
><em>they remind me where I'm from <em>  
><em>With deep conviction <em>  
><em>I am connected cross the miles <em>  
><em>with out them nothing worth relying on<em>

_Chiron - All That Remains_

~Chapter 2: New Ties~

_Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip._

The sound of water gradually brought Naruto back into consciousness. He slowly flickered his eyes open. He became aware of an intense pain in the majority of the right side of his body, but for some reason it didn't bother him much, like it was numbed.

Naruto sat up and looked around, dazed. He was sitting in some kind of sewer, judging by the pipes and steel walls around him and the murky water (at least he hoped it was water) underneath him. There was a dull light illuminating the tunnel he was in, but he couldn't find anyplace the light could be coming from. It was as if the place was _built_ to look creepy.

'_Wha… Where am I?'_

He stood up and realized his pants were completely dry. Yeah this definately wasn't normal water... didn't smell like a sewer though, so what could it be? He dismissed the mystery as unimportant at the moment.

"Ugh, what happened?" He question to no one in particular, holding his hand to his head, which wouldn't stop pounding. He suddenly felt a strong urge… like he needed to go somewhere, deeper into the tunnel system. He followed the urge, automatically walking through the twisting tunnels, quickly losing his sense of direction in the dark surroundings. Yet he never felt lost, and the urge never dulled, it only grew stronger.

Eventually, after a few minutes (or was it hours?) of walking through the complex tunnel system, he came across a large room, with what appeared to be an equally large cage on the other side of it, with the kanji for 'seal' on it. There was something on the other side of those bars, Naruto could feel it in his bones. As he cautiously approached the cage, a blanket of malicious power washed over him and he felt like he weighed a ton, but he still remained standing.

A pair of massive crimson eyes with slitted pupils revealed themselves, but Naruto showed no reaction. The sound of a very large creature taking rough breaths echoed throughout the room. Naruto stood waiting for something to happen.

Eventually, after several minutes of waiting, something did.

**"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?" **The creature suddenly roared. Naruto looked up like he had just realized something was angrily shouting at him.

"Hm? What are you talking about?" Naruto questioned with a confused look on his face.

**"YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU GAKI! NOW ANSWER MY QUESTION! WHAT IN THE NAME OF KAMI WERE YOU THINKING, JUMPING LIKE THAT?" **The creature roared again in anger and irritation.

It didn't faze Naruto. "What? What do you mean…? Jumping…" A look of realization dawned on his face as his latest memories returned to him. "I was… Jumping off of the Hokage Monument…" He said dazedly.

He then grabbed his head with a crazed look on his face. "What the hell _was _I thinking?" He shouted. "W-wait, does that mean that I'm… dead…?"

The large being before him sighed with enough force to blow Naruto back a few inches. **"No, you aren't dead, Gaki. You're in your mindscape,"**

A bewildered look adorned Naruto's face. "And that means…?"

**"OK, I'll say it in simple terms so even you can understand it," **The creature replied, recieving an offended "Hey!"

**"You aren't dead, but you're not quite alive, either, so you're in you own mind to figure out where you want to go from here."**

"… What? How can I not be dead, but not be alive, either?" Naruto questioned, scratching his head in confusion. "And what do you mean, where I want to go from here?"

**"When you started heading towards the cliff, I knew what you were going to do, and I was trying to tell you not to… but of course you didn't listen, and you jumped anyway. When I realized nothing I said was getting through to you, and saw how close you were to the ground, I abandoned all precautions and tried to take control so I could stop you. It didn't quite work as planned, obviously." **The creature explained, seeming to calm down a little.

"Oh, so you must have been that voice in the back of my head…" Naruto seemed mumbled to himself.

**"You mean you heard me and you ignored me?" **The creature said, quickly growing angry again.

"Well, I couldn't really understand what you were saying… what were you saying, anyway?"

The Creature was glad it was dark, so Naruto couldn't see it turn crimson. Well, more crimson than usual. Some of the things it had said to get him to stop were… Well it'd probably never say them ever again, unless it REALLY needed to get his attention...

**"T-that's beside the point! Anyway, when I tried taking control, I couldn't get full control, this seal stopped me, but my power gave you enough protection that you didn't die on impact. You're currently lying in your room in Konoha's ****Ninja ****Hospital****."**

"That still doesn't answer my question." Naruto pouted. Things were getting confusing! The creature sighed again.

**"I'm getting there, I'm getting there! My power was strong enough to stop you from dying, but too weak to save you from extensive injury. Right now, you're balancing on the line between life and death. Because of this, you've been inserted into your mind to make the decision."**

"So, what do I do then?" He asked with a determined look on his face.

**"It's actually quite simple. Just decide if you want to live or die, and leave the room the way you came. If you decide to live, you'll wake up in the hospital. If not… you'll die. Simple as that."**

"So I just decide and then leave, huh?" Naruto pondered the decision. He wasn't sure what he was thinking when he jumped that cliff… He remembered all the hateful glares and words. The blatant disrespect that even the academy teacher's gave him. And then he remembered Iruka. The only teacher who actually bothered to help him. The man he looked up to. He remembered the Sandaime, and the Teuchi's, and the occasional kind person who saw past the demon he contained. He made his decision.

"Just who are you anyway?" Naruto questioned the Creature, who sweat-dropped comically.

**"You mean you really haven't figured that out? Wow, you really are as stupid as your academy grades say."**

"HEY!"

**"Think about it. We're in _your _mind, and I'm sealed inside a cage. What do you contain that's sealed inside you?"**

At this, Naruto managed to put two and two together. His eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, and he stood gaping at the Creature. "You mean you're the…Kyūbi? But…you're not anything like I thought you'd be, you're actually kind. Well, maybe not _kind, _but you don't seem to hate me, and that's fine in my book." He said, ranting and nodding to himself.

**"You of all people should know by now that people aren't always how others make them out to be."**

Naruto sat down cross-legged and thought for a few minutes before voicing his thoughts. "If you're the Kyūbi, and you're sealed inside of me… Then why wouldn't you just let me die?" He thought with a gloomy look on his face.

**"Because, as much as it pains me to say it…I care about you, kit. And not just because when you die, I die – after all, I'll just be reborn again in the future – but because I've seen your life, the hell you've lived through year after year, and I have to say that most, if not all other people would have snapped and tried what you just did years ago. But you didn't. I may be one of the nine mighty bijū, but that doesn't mean I don't have feelings just like a human. I have to say, Naruto, that I am truly sorry for the hell I've caused you to live your entire life. If it weren't for me, you'd have a family, and the village wouldn't shun you. I am sorry for what I've caused…"**

With that they both sat in silence for what seemed like forever until finally Naruto spoke up.

"What's in the past is done. You can't change it, so it's no use getting hung up on it now." He paused and looked up at the large kitsune, a genuine smile on his face. "I guess it's just nice to know you care about what happened."

With that he got up and started walking towards the exit with a mischievous smirk on his face. "You know, for one the most feared beings in the world, you really sound like a girl."

He failed to notice the Kyūbi's smirk as well. **"Who said I was a male, kit?"**

The utterly shocked look on Naruto's face before he was ejected from his mind was priceless.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

An all too familiar beeping noise awaited Naruto when he awoke from his mindscape. It was the beeping of the medical equipment in his hospital room. How many times had he heard that in the past year? He had lost track after the first few dozen. Suddenly the pain hit him, and this time he felt every bit of it. The beeping increased dramatically in rate, eliciting a surprised shout from the occupant of the room. He grunted and arched his back from the pain.

Jumping off a cliff _hurt_!

A nurse quickly rushed up to him and gazed at him, shocked, when he turned his head to look at her. He slowly moved to sit upright in the hospital bed, trying to ignore the painful protests of his body.

The action startled the nurse out of her daze. "W-wait!" She rushed forward and pushed Naruto back to the bed, being surprisingly gentle. "You shouldn't be trying to sit up yet! You shouldn't even be _awake_, let alone able to move!" She said wide-eyed as she checked his clip-board at the end of his bed. She scribbled down some things.

Naruto laid back down on the bed in a daze. He... he had just met and had a conversation with the Kyūbi. It seemed so surreal, to hold a (somewhat) civilized conversation with the being that had practically destroyed your life so far.

To think that he had tried to commit suicide... he didn't know what the hell he was thinking then. The events of the past few days must have just built up... and that was the result.

He shuddered and finally got to observe his surroundings. He was in what appeared to be a generic hospital room, but he knew this was his special room, reserved for him by the Hokage's orders, incase something happened to cause Naruto injury, which was often the case.

The nurse attending to him was young – probably not even twenty yet – and frankly very beautiful. She had flowing brown hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. Her eyes were a deep ocean blue just like Naruto's own, and she had a pretty face with flawless skin. Her chest was… developed. He wasn't going to go any farther than that, he wasn't a pervert! She was of average height; around 5'10" would be his guess.

Naruto always got new nurses assigned to his room, ones straight out of medical training, since they could sabotage his healing process and pass it off as 'inexperienced mistakes'. The 'Head Doctor' or whatever the guy that ran this place was called seemed to have a larger than usual grudge against Naruto.

A voice startled him out of his thoughts.

"Are you finding everything to your liking?" The nurse questioned with what seemed to be a playful smirk. It took Naruto several seconds to realize he was still staring at her chest.

Naruto quickly raised his hands in protest. "N-no! I-I mean yes! I-I mean I wasn't checking you out, I swear!"

She giggled in response. It was actually very cute in Naruto's opinion. Too bad she would likely beat him for staring.

"Please don't beat the tar out of me!" He flinched back and shielded his face comically.

_'Ah, crap. She'll never believe me!'_

"What? Why would I hurt you? I already know you weren't being a perv." She said with a confused look adorning her face.

"W-what? How do you know?" He responded, surprised. "Not that I'm complaining! I'm glad you're not going to hurt me!" He quickly stammered out.

"When you were staring at me, it wasn't a lustful look. It was more like you were… analyzing me, I guess," She responded curiously. "The look on your face was actually pretty cute." She smiled and tried to replicate the look on his face. It really was cute. At least, it was on her… he wasn't so sure about himself. Sakura had told him what she thought of him often enough that he had started believing her at one point.

"You thought I was cute?" She nodded with a small blush, not that Naruto noticed; he was still clueless in the category of women. "Well then I guess you haven't seen 'The Great Uchiha' yet." He sulked.

"You mean Sasuke Uchiha?" She quesioned, raising an eyebrow. He nodded in response. "Of course I've seen him, who hasn't?"

_'Oh, great. Now she'll just go on about how handsome the Uchiha is compared to me, and how awesome the Uchiha is compared to me, and blah, blah, blah…'_

"They keep parading him around town like he's the best thing to walk this planet! He used to be a good kid, but because of the councils pampering he's become a stuck up ass!" She growled out.

This earned a _very _surprised stare from Naruto.

"He isn't even that handsome, but he has hordes of fangirls following him wherever he goes! There are plenty of people who deserve their attention more than him!" She continued. "You're a perfect example of that. In fact you're pretty handsome yourself." She giggled at Naruto's now red face and Naruto felt like he was going into shock.

The Hokage took that moment to stride through the door.

The nurse quickly muttered a surprised "Hokage-sama!" and bowed. Naruto of course ignored the formalities and yelled "Jiji-san!" with a huge grin on his face.

The now surprised and slightly fearful nurse glanced at Naruto. Nobody disrespected the Hokage like that!

The Hokage sighed. "How many times have I told you not to call me that, Naruto-kun?"

"Too many times to actually expect me to listen, Jiji-san." Naruto said, with a sly grin.

The wide-eyed nurse looked between Naruto and the Hokage in shock.

The Hokage shifted his eyes to the now standing nurse and she suddenly felt very afraid.

"I trust his healing is going according to plan, Miss Hisagi?" He questioned – well more like interrogated – while narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

"Y-yes, Hokage-sama, his healing is going perfectly. He's healing at a phenomenal rate; I've never seen anything like it!" She said, glancing at Naruto.

This earned a surprised look form Naruto, and even an eyebrow-raising from the Hokage. Didn't she know about the Kyūbi? Well, even if she didn't, it wasn't the Hokage's place to tell her, that was Naruto's decision.

"Well then, I guess I've accomplished what I came here for. I'll be getting back to my... work now."

"Ok, see you later Jiji-san!" Naruto smiled another rather large beaming smile. Gotta keep the mask up, you know?

"Naruto, after your team assessment is over, we are going to have a little talk about just how you came to be in the hospital in the first place," The Hokage replied grimly, exiting the room and heading to the Hokage Tower.. The nurse had a questioning look on her face.

"What was all that about? Why did it feel like the Hokage was interrogating me?" She looked to Naruto for the answers.

"The nurses that are assigned to my hospital room tend to… sabotage my healing process." He stated reluctantly.

"What? Sabotage… you mean they purposefully work against your healing? Why would they do that?" She asked incredulously.

"Do you know who I am?" He asked solemnly.

"Well, I know your name is Naruto, but that's pretty much it. What does that have to do with this?"

Naruto looked at her like she was crazy.

"You're old enough to know how the Kyūbi was defeated, right?"

"Yes, I am... It was killed by the Yondaime Hokage," She said, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly. It was obvious she knew that the Kyūbi had not been killed. At this point there was pretty much no turning back.

"No, it wasn't," He started, his voice sounding emotionless. Her eyes widened as he continued. "It was sealed..."

"...Into a child… but how do _you _know that?" She questioned suspicously.

"Do you know the name of the Kyūbi's Jinchuriki?" He asked, reluctant to say it outright.

"Of course, he's just as famous as the Uchiha, he's… Naruto… Uzumaki…" A look of realization dawned on her face. It was hard to tell what she was thinking, but Naruto was pretty sure it wouldn't be good. She had only acted kindly towards him because she hadn't known who he was, but now she would yell and rant or hopefully just leave without a word.

What he did _not _expect was a pair of feminine arms to sweep him off of his hospital bed, wrap around him and press his face into her well developed chest, effectively suffocating him.

"Oh, you poor boy! You don't deserve anything those idiotic villagers do to you!" She squealed as she squeezed the life out of Naruto.

"Mmmmph mmrrmm!" Naruto's strangled cries alerted her to his plight. She quickly released him from her hold and he gasped for breath for several seconds. Luckily for Naruto she didn't notice how red his face was, or if she did, she must have passed it off as a reaction to the lack of oxygen.

"Couldn't… Breathe…!" He wheezed. He recovered after several moments of rest.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean hurt you, Naruto!" She squealed. She was acting rather fangirlish in Naruto's eyes.

"Don't worry about it, it's fine," Naruto replied, causing her to breathe a sigh of relief. "So… you really don't care that I have the Kyūbi inside of me?" He asked with pleading eyes.

"Of course not! There's no way you could be a monster like almost everyone claims, you're too kind!"

This time it was her turn to be surprised as Naruto buried his face into her chest and hugged her. She soon returned his embrace, albeit gentler than the last time. "Thank you…" He said queitly.

"There's no need to thank me, Naruto." She murmured softly. "You deserve much better than what I've given you, but I can only do so much," She chuckled a little.

"Well, I'm sorry for ruining the mood, but I need to do the rest of my rounds or my boss will fire me." She said sadly. She turned to leave.

"Can I at least know your name?" Naruto pleaded. She stopped, turned and stuck out her hand.

"My name is Akari Hisagi. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Naruto took her hand and shook it. "Naruto Uzumaki." He said with a grin.

And with that she left. Naruto couldn't help but feel saddened by her absence. He'd most likely have a different nurse assigned to his room the next time he stayed here. She was the first nurse that hadn't treated him like shit since the Hokage had assigned him the room. It felt nice to be cared about, instead of being seen as a waste of space.

His thoughts were again interrupted by the door opening and another presence in the room. He looked up to find the single eye of Kakashi staring back at him. His face looked solemn, even though you could only see his eye.

Yeah, he definitely knew how Naruto had gotten there…

"Kakashi-sensei? What are you doing here?"

"I was just checking up on you, seeing if you were alright. I _was _the one to bring you here after all."

Naruto's eyes widened upon hearing this. Come to think of it, he hadn't really thought of how he had gotten to the hospital in the first place. "How did you know where I was?" He questioned.

"When you… jumped, you released a small amount of the Kyūbi's chakra, whether you intended to or not. Any ninja close enough to the Monument or any ninja with high sensory skills felt the outburst and I happened to be the closest to the scene. So I transported you here and alerted the Hokage," He eye-smiled.

"Oh. I guess that makes sense," Naruto said to himself.

"Well since you're up I guess I'm not needed here anymore. I'll see you at the team assessment at Training Ground 7 tomorrow. Don't be late," he said, and then poofed away before Naruto could protest.

Something Kakashi had said nagged at the back of Naruto's head. _'I'll see you at the team assessment at Training Ground 7 tomorrow… Team assessment… Training Ground 7… Tomorrow…'_

Tomorrow! What time was it? He frantically looked for a clock, and eventually found the one above the door. It was 10:47 P.M.

He only had around 7 hours until team assignments! That was nowhere _near_ enough time to train! Now he was _certain _his sensei was sadistic! He decided to make the best of the time he had and grabbed his clothes that Akari had laid out before heading out the door. He would spend an hour training and then sleep the rest of the time. He had to be ready for Kakashi-sensei! Maybe he could find Iruka-sensei if he was still at the academy and get some pointers…

With those thoughts in mind he bolted out the door for the exit, earning rude comments from all the nurses walking down the hall. All but one.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

~A/N: So, how was it? Good, bad, absolutely horrible? Need to know how my first attempt at fluff went :D Also, for those wondering why Akari couldn't just read his last name off of his medical papers, info, etc... It's because the hokage ordered his last name not to be revealed to any nurses or doctors, in the hopes that they wouldn't realize who they were tending to. For those that like action, the next chapter will have some!

The Button's Right There So...  
>REVIEW!<p> 


	3. Relentless

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto… If I did, it probably wouldn't have played out the way it did…**

~A/N: I'm surprised! The story is only 9,120 words long, but it has 17 reviews, 2437 hits, 58 favs, and 61 alerts (as of 9:40 PM). Glad people like the story ^-^ It may be a while before I update again though :( School started a few weeks ago and I'm taking Calculus (As a sophomore WOOT!). I usually only write (type/touch whatever) when I FEEL like it, otherwise it doesn't feel like my best, and I don't feel like writing much after 90 minutes of Calculus homework... I'm trying to make the chapters I have written last a little longer, so don't hate me if I update slow for a little while... :P

~Fallen Angel~

~A Naruto Fanfiction~

_I will no relent, No, No  
>Never live with defeat<br>Never falter  
>Like the air that I breathe<br>Like the air that I breathe  
>I will not choke on failure<em>

_The Air That I Breathe - All That Remains_

~Chapter 3: Relentless~

Naruto sleepily approached Training Ground 7 at a slow walk. Why did Kakashi-sensei have to test them at six in the morning? He had said not to have breakfast, either, but that was just asinine, he needed to eat or he'd go hungry and have no energy! He was starting to think his sensei was slightly sadistic…

As he came within sight of the training grounds, he noticed both Sasuke and Sakura were already there. Sakura was slumped against a tree, probably sleeping, and Sasuke was leaning against another tree a ways away from her, most likely brooding, like he always did.

Naruto went over to another tree away from the other two and leaned back to wait for their sensei.

After an hour, the most exciting thing that had happened was Sakura shifting in her sleep (which had startled both Naruto and Sasuke). Naruto was starting to get restless.

"Aaagh, I can't take this anymore!" He shouted, jolting Sakura from her slumber and Sasuke from his brooding. "I've got to do _something_! Sitting here waiting for what could be hours doing nothing is a waste of time when I could be training!" He protested loudly, standing up. He found the nearest tree and approached it, lying down on the ground and placing his feet against the base of the trunk. Both Sasuke and Sakura looked at him like he was crazy.

Naruto remembered what Iruka had told him last night, after he had managed to find him in the academy.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

A knock on Iruka's door startled him out of his late night work. The paperwork you had to do _after_ they graduated was even worse than grading the student's homework, so Iruka was glad for a distraction. He got up and opened the door, surprised to see his favorite student standing in front of him with a sheepish grin on his face he had seen many times before.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto greeted in his usual loud manner. His voice had what seemed to be a bit of nervousness mixed in though. "How's it goin'?"

"Well… I'm doing fine Naruto, but what are you doing here at this hour of the night?" Iruka questioned. Iruka could only hope he wasn't part of some post-graduation celebratory prank.

It seemed Naruto wasn't able to hold in whatever was on his mind any longer. "I need some training tips, Iruka-sensei! I gotta get better as a ninja or I'll never become Hokage!" He shouted with a determined look that made Iruka chuckle.

"Well…" He began with a sly look. "I'm not exactly supposed to tell you, but there's a chakra control exercise all genin learn when they're in their three-man squads. It couldn't hurt for you to learn it a little early…" He trailed off with a thoughtful look. Naruto's grin practically split his face in two when he heard this. "It's commonly called the tree-climbing exercise, and to do it, you first have to find a tree…"

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

"What are you doing, Naruto?" Sakura's annoyed and slightly curious questioning brought Naruto out of his memories. He rolled his eyes (much to Sakura's chagrin) and proceeded in gathering chakra to his feet. Sakura's eye seemed to be twitching in annoyance at this point, and Sasuke seemed interested in Naruto's actions for once.

"Well? Are you going to answer me or just ignore me?" Sakura crossed her arms over her chest and huffed when Naruto's silence gave her his answer.

Naruto closed his eyes in concentration. Sakura's constant nagging was making it hard to concentrate, but he was used to it by now and had learned to tune it out. He focused on gathering the correct amount of chakra to the soles of his feet. He had almost gotten it right the previous night, but he hadn't had enough time to complete the exercise.

He opened his eyes with a look of burning determination. He was going to get it right this time! The look in his eyes managed to stop Sakura mid-rant, much to Sasuke's relief. Naruto took a tentative step forward up the tree and felt it stick to the trunk. He smirked.

He brought his other foot up off of the ground and took a second step. His foot stuck. His smirk widened a fraction. He was now off of the ground and standing on the side of the tree.

He slowly continued on until he was about six feet off the ground. His smirk turned into a full blown grin. The look on Sakura's face as Naruto stood completely horizontal on the side of the tree gave Naruto immense satisfaction. He continued up the side of the tree until he reached a sizeable branch about thirty feet up, then proceeded to walk along the underside of the branch, causing Sakura's jaw to hit the floor, and even Sasuke's eyes were wider than usual.

Naruto turned to them from his upside-down perch on the branch. "What's the matter, guys? Never seen a person climb a tree?" He said with a triumphant grin.

Sakura seemed to pick her jaw up off of the ground. "How in Kami's name did you do that?" She shouted in disbelief while pointing at Naruto.

"Do what?" Naruto asked with an all too innocent and confused look on his face. Sasuke's eye was now twitching, while Sakura was practically tearing her hair out.

"You just walked up the side of a tree and now you're defying gravity!" She said with a crazed expression on her face as her brain worked to piece everything together.

Naruto decided to tell her about the exercise before her brain overheated, or had a catastrophic meltdown… or exploded. He dropped off the branch, catching Sakura's attention, and righted himself in mid-air to land on his feet. He had a sly smile on his face that was not often seen on Naruto. "You wanna know how I did that? I could teach you if you're up for it…" He offered teasingly.

Sakura's thirst for knowledge as well as her curiosity got the better of her. "Of course I want to know how you did that! You _have _to teach it to me!" She said pleadingly. Sasuke was trying to look like he wasn't interested, but he was failing miserably.

"I learned it from Iruka-sensei last night!" He said excitedly. "He called it the tree-walking exercise or something like that. He said it was something all genin learn in their three-man squads and is great for improving chakra control, so he taught it to me to help me out a little." He said while rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. His horrendous chakra control was no secret to anyone in the academy. "The first thing you need to do is find a tree." He said walking up to the same tree as before.

Both Sakura as well as Sasuke found a tree near Naruto and looked to him for further instruction. It felt weird to be taking instruction from Naruto of all people.

"To walk on the tree, you need to gather chakra at your feet and maintain it. If you use too much chakra, you will be pushed off the tree. Too little and you'll fall back to the ground." He said, and then proceeded to demonstrate the concept once again, with less trouble than before. "When you start out it'll take some concentration, but eventually you'll be able to do it without even thinking about it." He said matter-of-factly. It felt wierd to teach.

With that all three genin proceeded with the exercise, Sakura seemed to get the hang of it quickly, and after several tries got up to a branch within thirty minutes. Sasuke seemed to be having more trouble. If the dobe could do it why couldn't he? He just couldn't get the amount of chakra right!

Sasuke noticed Naruto approaching him. This caught Sakura's attention as well.

'Probably came to gloat…' Sasuke thought with a scowl.

"You look like you're having some trouble," Naruto started with a nervous smile. "You want some advice?"

This left Sasuke shaken. Naruto was offering him advice? He was offering his self-proclaimed rival advice? He decided to voice his thoughts.

"Why would you offer me advice?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment and nervousness. His teammates noted that he did that a lot. "Well, we're supposed to be a team, right? If I'm the only one that knows how to do this that'll put the entire team as a whole at a disadvantage." He explained.

Both Sakura and Sasuke were shocked. When had Naruto started thinking of the team as a whole? Naruto continued.

"It helps to lie down next to the tree and try to find the right amount of chakra before you actually walk up the trunk." He demonstrated how had done it earlier. "It's easier to find the right amount of chakra to gather in your feet because your foot will stick to the tree, but you won't fall if it's wrong, so you can keep it up until you find the right amount."

With that Naruto left and returned to his own training, he was currently trying to advance the exercise to the point where it would be almost automatic.

Sasuke decided to try Narutos advice and within minutes he was up to the first branch, a good twenty feet up the tree. He looked to Sakura's progress and she was nearing the top of the tree with the help of Narutos advice. Soon she would be able to walk up and down the tree without falling. Surprisingly, Sasuke wasn't put out about being the last one to complete the exercise. He wasn't very happy about it, but he didn't really mind.

Another half an hour later and Sasuke was able to freely walk up and down the tree. He was fairly sure he could do it well enough to divert some attention to throwing some shuriken or kunai, but wasn't so sure about his ninjutsu. He couldn't concentrate on forming the hand signs and gathering the right amount of chakra. He figured it would get easier the more he used the tree climbing technique.

Both Sakura and Sasuke decided to stop the exercise and rest while they resumed waiting for their tardy sensei. They couldn't fight very well if they were tired from training after all. Naruto, however, decided to continue with the exercise as he wasn't even feeling out of breath ("I'm fine! Dattebayo!").

Sakura decided to spend the time waiting for their sensei to arrive resting and eventually drifted off to sleep again, while Sasuke resumed his brooding, though the scowl on his face wasn't nearly as large as it had been before Naruto's 'Training Break'.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

To say Kakashi Hatake was surprised to see Naruto Uzumaki, the supposed dobe of the graduating class, performing the tree-climbing exercise almost flawlessly when he arrived at the training ground would be a rather large understatement. As he tried to work out how Naruto could have found out about the exercise, Naruto woke up Sakura and shook Sasuke out of his thoughts. When Kakashi felt a rather large amount of Killer Intent wash over him (at least for a genin) he looked down to find a fuming Sakura who looked like she was about ready to slug him in the face.

Kakashi eye-smiled. "Sorry, a black cat crossed my path and I had to go the long way around…" He started, but was interrupted by Sakura.

"BULLSHIT! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE HERE FOUR HOURS AGO!" She bellowed with enough force to blow Kakashi's hair back. Kakashi eye-smiled again.

"Correction," He said pointedly. "YOU were supposed to be here four hours ago. I never said anything about _me _having to show up when _you_ did. Some people need their rest, you know." He lectured. The look on Sakura's face was murderous.

'Ah, messing with the new genin is always entertaining.' He thought while chuckling in his mind.

"Anyway, let's get on with the assessment." He continued. Their expressions instantly became serious. Kakashi held up two silver bells. "Your test is to grab one of these bells from me. If you do not grab one of the bells by noon, you will go with no lunch while and I will eat mine in front of you. You will also be sent back to the academy." He said cheerfully. The looks on their faces were priceless.

Sakura seemed to notice something and instantly voiced her concern. "Kakashi-sensei, why are there only two bells if this is a three-man squad?"

"Well, this way, one of you is guaranteed to go back to the academy." He said with an eye-smile. Pit them against each other and see if they can work together instead of fighting amongst themselves. It had been his assessment every time and nobody had ever passed. If a team couldn't put work together, they would get themselves killed in no time. Most assumed he failed his new teams because he was lazy and didn't want to work, but really just valued teamwork and loyalty too much to pass a team that wouldn't work together.

Sakura looked at Sasuke with a determined look on her face. It was obvious she wanted to pass along with Sasuke. Sasuke himself glanced at Naruto. Kakashi reasoned this was because Naruto had more skill than Sakura, who for the most part had more knowledge than real skill, and Sasuke wanted someone on the team who could actually fight with him. Naruto had once again surprised Kakashi and had a thoughtful look on his face. He had figured Naruto would react aggressively, or at the very least protest. Kakashi set the timer for noon and announced the beginning of the test with a shout.

"BEGIN!"

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

Immediately both Sasuke and Sakura jumped away and hid in the forest, while Naruto stayed where he was and stared Kakashi down. Kakashi sighed. He should have expected Naruto to try and take him head on from the get-go. He reached into his back pocket and Naruto tensed. Was he going for a weapon? Would Kakashi use lethal force in the test? Kakashi retracted his hand to reveal an orange book, causing Naruto, as well as Sasuke and Sakura, who were hiding in the forest and watching, to sweat-drop.

"What's the deal with the book, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto shouted and pointed at the offending literature.

"Oh, this thing?" Kakashi responded dismissively. You won't really be much of a threat, so it won't really matter what I do. I could read, or make a sandwich, or even sleep." This caused Naruto to narrow his eyes. "You won't be able to touch me anyway; you're a dobe, a dead-last. The guy with the biggest mouth and the worst skills."

Naruto clenched his teeth. Kakashi's words echoed around inside his head. 'It won't really matter what I do… You're a dobe, a dead-last… dobe… dead-last…' Naruto growled. It was a deep, guttural snarl that surprised his watching teammates as well as his sensei. Naruto looked up and his eyes were red, though only Kakashi could see. This worried him, the Kyūbi wasn't escaping was it? No, it couldn't be, he would have felt the Kyūbi's power by now… but some of it's chakra was leaking into the boys coils. It seemed when he was angry he would unknowingly draw on it's power. Interesting…

Naruto had never felt so good, so powerful. It was like power flowed through his body instead of chakra, but he wasted no time pondering on this and instead focused on Kakashi. This was the last straw. He was done being called a dobe. He was done being discriminated against. He would show this bastard that he meant _business_.

He formed the hand signs to his favorite technique and called out "**Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Technique)!**" and over a dozen other Naruto's appeared beside him. His teammates were wide eyed. How could he make so many clones? And what were that many clones supposed to do? They were illlusions and were only useful for diversions and traps. Their questions were answered when several clones charged forward and assaulted Kakashi. They were solid! They weren't normal clones, they could do physical damage! What else would Naruto surprise them with? They could only watch and see.

On the battlefield Kakashi was actually surprised. Not even he could make that many clones and not be at least winded, but Naruto appeared unfazed. He had heard rumors that the boy's chakra reserves were almost legendary for his age, but he hadn't believed it until now.

Several of the clones, kunai in hand, charged forward at him with speed that no genin should posses. He quickly realized the Kyūbi's chakra must be amplifying his abilities. Two clones charged him from the front while one assaulted him from each side and another approached from the back. Kakashi jumped high into the air to avoid a simultaneous swipe from all five clones when a shadow fell over him.

He looked up and found several clones falling towards him from above. He was still holding his book and couldn't turn himself in midair fast enough to avoid, and unfortunately he was facing the sky and couldn't see any suitable objects for substitution, so all he could do was block with his arms and take the blows. The clones all brought their fists down in a hammering motion that threw Kakashi towards the ground faster than Naruto teammates could follow and created a cloud of dust. The other clones all circled the impact and waiting for the dust to settle. Naruto had calmed down enough that his eyes returned to their normal blue color. Though he still felt the power flowing through him, he could now think rationally.

When the dust cleared did, Kakashi climbed out of the sizable crater his impact had made and put his copy of Icha-Icha back into his pocket. He had _not _expected Naruto to be that fast. "It seemed his abilities were amplified a little more than he had expected. Oh well, at least it will make this test interesting." He mumbled to himself.

With that the other clones charged forward. Kakashi was determined not to underestimate Naruto this time. He blocked a punch coming from his right and ducked under one coming from the back, then blocked a kick to the face with his free hand. He dispelled the clone on his right with a swift punch just in time to block another punch from his left. A sweep kick from behind forced him to jump up off the ground. He used the moment to kick out at the clone in front of him hit the clone behind him with an uppercut, then proceeded to dispel the clones to his sides.

He then heard, rather than saw, a barrage of shuriken coming from behind, courtesy of the remaining clones. He dodged to the left but something was wrong. He just barely heard the whistle of a single shuriken coming from behind and twisted his body just in time to dodge it.

Seconds later he heard a sound he never thought he would hear during the test. It was the tinkling sound of a pair of silver bells hitting the ground, their strings cut by the shuriken he had just barely dodged. He realized another barrage of shuriken was coming from all directions towards the bells, meant to drive him away. He put on a burst of speed and quickly grabbed the pair of bells, reattaching them to his belt and using a substitution to get away from the barrage before he was riddled with shuriken and kunai.

Kakashi appeared behind the remaining clones and dispelled each with a quick but powerful series of jabs. He turned to find another group of over a dozen shadow clones. Kakashi sighed and charged into the mass of flailing limbs. He would not underestimate Naruto again.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

Meanwhile, Sakura was watching the display of power from underneath a bush and was wide eyed. She had just barely seen what Naruto did. He got Kakashi so caught up in the battle and on his toes that he forgot about the bells on his belt for a fraction of a second. He used that window to cut the strings and try to drive Kakashi away from the fallen bells. How had Naruto come up with that plan? This couldn't possibly be the same dobe that had followed her around and pestered her for dates almost every day in the academy…

"Hey, Sakura. Over here." A hushed voice almost made Sakura 'eep' but she managed to hold it in. She turned, expecting the worst, only to find Naruto crouching behind her.

"Naruto? You could lead Kakashi-sensei right to me! What are you _doing _here?" She said angrily in a hushed voice.

Naruto ignored her accusation and responded. "We both know it's going to be almost impossible to get those bells on our own, you saw what he did out there, he's just too fast! There's no way any of us could beat a Jounin by ourselves!"

Sakura looked downcast. "Well, yeah, but… there are only two bells… One of us won't pass..." She trailed off.

"I know, and we can deal with that _after _we have the bells! If none of us get any bells it won't matter how many there are because nobody will pass!" He reasoned urgently. "We need to work as a team to have any chance of getting the bells.

Sakura reluctantly agreed with him. She could see his reasoning. There was absolutely no way _she _would ever get those bells if what Naruto had done wasn't enough… They decided to work together with Sasuke to get the bells together, as long as he agreed, and Naruto led Sakura to the clearing they were supposed to meet up at. They only had so much time until Kakashi dispelled his clones, and they were disappearing fast.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

Sasuke was watching the proceedings from his perch in a tree on the edge of the forest. His eyes were wide at what Naruto had done. Was Naruto really strong enough to go toe-to-toe with a Jounin? The Jounin must have been holding back, there was no possible way Naruto could've gotten that close to getting the bells otherwise.

"Hey, Sasuke." Sasuke nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a whisper behind him. He managed to keep his cool though and turned around with a kunai in hand to find Naruto crouching behind him.

"What the hell are you doing, dobe?"

"Just shut up and listen, teme," Naruto growled, recieving a glare from the Uchiha. "We both know that there's no way either of us will be able to get those bells on our own-"

"Just because you failed doesn't mean I will!" Sasuke interrupted.

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he clenched his fists. "I highly doubt even the 'Great Uchiha Prodigy' can stand up to an elite Jounin, you saw how skilled he was!" He retaliated, much to Sasuke's frustration. As much as he hated to admit it, the dobe had a point. Sasuke doubted he could do any better than Naruto had. He reluctantly agreed to work together with Naruto and Sakura, and they proceeded to the meeting point.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

Kakashi was relieved as he dispelled the last clone with a powerful kick to the side of the head. He was actually starting to get a little winded, which was surprising. There had been at least two dozen clones, and they coordinated their attacks extremely well for a genin. The sheer amount of clones he could make was astounding. Was Naruto really the dobe of the class? That was what his grades had said, and most of the teachers supported the grades.

He did a backflip as several kunai that were thrown out of the woods almost struck him. It was probably best _not _to get lost in thought in the middle of the test...

Hearing several shouts, Kakashi glanced around and saw several clones running at him from the surrounding forest. They quickly moved to surround him, but they kept their distance. Several clones ran forward and he moved to dispel them when another clone he hadn't seen latched onto his back and tried to hold back his arms. This gave the other clones enough time to latch onto his other limbs and restrict his movement.

Somewhere behind him a voice he recognized as Sasuke's called out. **"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)!"**

He soon felt the air behind him quickly growing too hot for comfort, and he quickly used a Kawarimi to replace himself with one of the clones that was staying back. As the fireball dissipated he readied himself for another assault from the clones, but it never came. He looked to the clones, who all had large grins on their faces. They spoke in unison: "We win, Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi's eyes widened as he looked down at his belt... The bells were gone! How could they be gone? He would have noticed!

The clones all dispelled at the same time and when the smoke cleared, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura could be seen standing in the middle of the clearing.

Naruto was holding up both bells in his hand while forming the victory sign and laughing his ass off, Sakura stuck her toungue out at their sensei, and Sasuke was smirking in triumph.

"W-wha?" Kakashi stuttered, eyes wide. "How did you get them? When?" He questioned urgently. If word of his defeat at the hand of three genin got out, he would never live it down.

"I got the bells when my clones grabbed you Kakashi-sensei," Naruto responded. "My clone cut the bells off of your belt while you were distracted and threw them to the other clones before the fireball dispelled him. The fireball was just to make you pay more attention to getting out of the way than the bells." He said with a triumphant smile. Sakura seemed to glare at him, and Naruto smiled sheepishly. "Of course, it _did_ help that Sakura used a genjutsu to silence the bells, otherwise you would have heard them falling, like before."

Kakashi stared at them incredulously, his single eye wide with shock. How could he not have noticed that? He _really _needed to train when he got home...

The three genin then looked at each other. Naruto and Sakura seemed nervous. Sasuke looked determined.

"So..." Sakura started. "Who's going to go back to the academy?" Their eyes shifted from one teammate to the next. Kakashi decided to save them the trouble. If they were able to put aside their differences, work together, _and _get the bells from him they must be a good team.

"That doesn't really matter, because all three of you pass," He said with his patented eye-smile.

This time it was their turn to look shocked. They stared at him in surprise and he knew they wanted an explanation.

"You see, the purpose of this test wasn't to test your skills, it was to test your teamwork." He stated with mock cheer. "The purpose of the bells was to see if you could put aside the obstacle and work together to defeat me, which you did."

The three genin glanced at each other. Naruto was the first to recover enough to speak. "So... all three of us pass?" He asked with hope in his eyes.

"Yes," He eye-smiled. "You all pass."

There was silence for several moments as he let this sink in, until:

"YEEEEAAAAAAAH!" Naruto shouted and literally jumped for joy, jolting the other genin out of their shock. Sakura squealed while Sasuke just grunted, though he was still smirking. "We passed the test! Now we can do cool missions, right Kakashi-sensei?" He said eagerly.

"Of course, you'll be getting missions almost every day," He said. 'If you consider chores and houswork cool missions' He added as an afterthought. He checked the time. It was only eleven. "Well, I didn't really think we would be done this early, so I don't have anything else planned for us today," He continued. "Just meet up here again at the same time tomorrow, and we can go get your first mission." With that, Kakashi gave them a wave and disappeared with a in a puff of smoke.

As soon as he was gone Naruto cheered again. "Yeah! Now we're official genin of Konoha! What do you think our first mission will be, guys? Ya think we're gonna leave Konoha? Maybe we'll rescue a princess!" He continued on for several minutes, theorizing on what their missions would be like.

Eventually, he looked around and realized Sasuke and Sakura weren't there anymore. He sweat-dropped.

"Awww man... Am I really that annoying?" He mumbled quietly as he left the training ground. He would go to Ickiraku's for lunch, then train until evening (Iruka had said to make the tree-walking exercise automatic before moving on) and go to bed early. He thought he had earned some well-deserved rest.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

~A/N So there you have it, my first attempt action :P hope it was OK...


	4. Wave

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto… If I did, it probably wouldn't have played out the way it did…**

~A/N: For those who are wondering, I watched the anime before I read the Manga (which I have barely done at all XD) so most of my Knowledge is from the anime series, meaning I learned the Kage Bunshin as the Shadow Clone, so please forgive me if I keep switching between terms (ie: Henge/Transformation, Jutsu/Technique, Style/Release, etc...) or if I misspell the name of a jutsu or get the name wrong altogether. Just point the errors out and I'll do my best to fix them. This also means I'm not as up-to-date in relation to the Naruto world. Most of what I know about Shippuden is what I've gleamed from fanfics that are close to canon :P

~Fallen Angel~

~A Naruto Fanfiction~

_I can feel the animal inside_  
><em>My resolve is weakening<em>  
><em>Pounding on the doors of my mind<em>  
><em>It's nearly overpowering<em>

_I cannot begin to describe_  
><em>The hunger that I feel again<em>  
><em>Run if you intend to survive<em>  
><em>For the beast is coming to life<em>

_Taking more than a glimmer_  
><em>Of this tainted moonlight<em>  
><em>Death approaches on this night<em>

_The Animal - Disturbed_

~Chapter4:~

"Kami, I _hate _this!" Naruto once again shouted in outrage. "Why are we stuck doing chores for people that are too lazy or stupid to do it themselves?"

It had been several days since Kakashi had tested Team 7. Naruto had been so anxious about the possible missions he would undertake that he had barely gotten any rest after the team's assessment. Imagine Naruto's disappointment when Kakashi had arrived and taken them to the Hokage, where they had received the oh so arduous task of removing the weeds from an old woman's garden. She had enough energy to beat Naruto with her cane for 'Pulling out the weeds the wrong way', so why the hell couldn't she weed her own damn garden? Naruto's teammates had quickly grown annoyed as well, but were surprised when Naruto hadn't said anything (Out loud at least).

Today they had received another D-Rank mission from the Hokage: Find and retrieve Tora the cat. Kakashi had immediately paled and said that completing the mission on their own would be an excellent teamwork exercise and poofed away.

That couldn't be a good sign...

The Hokage chuckled and politely told them to get to work.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were currently walking down one of the many streets in Konoha. Naruto had created several dozen Shadow Clones and sent them off in all directions to search for the missing feline, while the real Naruto stuck with his teammates to help with the search.

"The fat woman who gave us this stupid mission should look for the cat herself!" Naruto continued. "Kami knows she needs the exercise!"

Both Sakura and Sasuke rolled their eyes, but silently agreed. Truth be told, the D-Rank missions were starting to get on their nerves, too. Sure, the D-Ranks were good for teamwork building but they _did _get very tedious.

After several hours of unsuccessful searching and finding nothing, a sudden memory came to the front of his mind, causing Naruto to widen his eyes.

_He was searching one of the training grounds, in a forested area when he suddenly heard a loud hissing sound behind him. He quickly spun around to find a brown mass of flailing limbs and bared teeth flying at him. Just before the cat swiped him he managed to catch a glimpse of the red bow tied around its head that identified it as the cat they were currently searching for._

He realized the memory had come from a Shadow Clone and the memories had come when it dispelled. Damn, that cat could do some damage!

"Hey guys, I've located Tora. The cat is on the edge of Konoha, in one of the Training Grounds," He said casually. "Come on, I'll take you to the place."

Both Sasuke and Sakura gave him skeptical looks. Naruto decided to answer their questions before they were asked.

"One of my Shadow Clones found Tora. Apparently, when they're dispelled they transfer all of their memory to the original. Tora dispelled my clone, so I know where it is now. Now come on, we need to get to it before it moves!" He said urgently.

The others nodded their heads before all three sped towards their destination. Any lead was better than no lead after all. They both just hoped it wasn't a prank...

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

Kakashi was sitting on a bench near the Hokage tower waiting for his team to arrive (and passing the time by reading a certain little orange book) when he felt a fairly large spike of killer intent directed towards him. He looked up.

The source was not Sakura, like he had expected it to be (though she did look slightly pissed) but a bruised and extremely sore Naruto. He had numerous scratches all over his body, and his jumpsuit was even torn in some places. All of his injuries would heal within the next several minutes, but Naruto was still pissed at his sensei for leaving them to undertake the mission on their own.

Sakura was holding the offending feline in her arms as they approached him, Naruto was switching between glaring at him and glaring at the cat, and Sasuke looked for the most part indifferent about the whole thing, though he did have a few scratches and would occasionally give the cat a scathing look.

Naruto immediately stomped right up to him.

"What the hell Kakashi-sensei?" He shouted comically. "Why did you just abandon us with this stupid mission?"

"I didn't abandon you, Naruto. I thought this mission would be a good teamwork exercise." He stated calmly.

"BULLSHIT! You've never given us a teamwork exercise before now!" Naruto shouted in defiance while pointing at him accusingly.

"Well, I decided now would be a good time to start." He replied. Naruto gave him another glare. "Anyway, we should head into the Hokage tower and finish up the mission."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Naruto pouted and crossed his arms. The team proceeded to the Hokage's office. The secretary glared at Naruto when they passed, which didn't escape the rest of the teams' notice, though they decided not to say anything and Sasuke and Sakura chalked it up to the secretary having a bad day. Kakashi knew better, or course. He could only hope that things got better for Naruto, or he'd have a fairly rough road ahead of him.

Kakashi knocked politely and the team entered the office, causing the Hokage to look up from his paperwork with relief. Anything that could distract him from the eternal rival of all Kage's was welcome.

"Ah, Team 7. Have you completed your mission?" He questioned formally.

"Yes Hokage-sama. Tora the cat has been apprehended and subdued." Kakashi replied. The Hokage did not miss the furious looks Naruto gave both the cat and Kakashi. By the lack of injury to Kakashi he figured Kakashi had bailed on the mission and left the genin to fend for themselves.

"Very good, I'll call the Daimyo's wife up and you can get your pay." He said with a smile.

They waited for several minutes – which Naruto spent giving the cat death threats – while the rather large woman huffed and puffed up the stairs.

When she finally barged into the room, the cat started freaking out and leaped onto Naruto's head to escape the woman, who barreled straight through Naruto to get to the cat. When Naruto recovered, he took great satisfaction in seeing the cat getting crushed by the noblewoman. Unknown to him, both Kakashi and the Sandaime were also reveling in the cat's plight.

With that Kakashi dismissed the team, claiming the Tora mission was enough for one day, but before he could, the Hokage asked the question Naruto had been dreading ever since 'the incident'. Mainly because it was about 'the incident'.

"Naruto, could you stay for a moment? I want to talk about your actions a week ago."

Both Sakura and Sasuke raised their eyebrows at this, but left, figuring it was just a prank Naruto had pulled or something of the like. Kakashi decided to give the two some time and left in a poof of smoke.

Naruto walked up to the Hokage's desk with a blank face. "Yes, Jiji-san?"

"We need to talk about your actions a week ago, Naruto... I don't understand why you of all people would attempt suicide." The Hokage said quietly.

Truthfully, Naruto would've felt better if the Hokage had shouted himself hoarse at him. The way he was talking now, it sounded like he was disappointed in him. He wasn't entirely sure what he had been thinking at the moment he jumped.

"I guess... I guess it was all just too much for me," He said quietly. "I had been assaulted on my way home from the academy, and that combined with the whole fiasco with Mizuki... I guess I just couldn't take it anymore."

The Hokage sighed. He had been worried about how Naruto was doing, and had noticed he was much quieter and more withdrawn. He had decided to give Naruto some time to think about what he had done instead of immediately confronting him about it, just in case he still had second thoughts. He had actually had a squad of ANBU watching him to make sure nothing else would happen.

"Try not to hold it against the people of the village Naruto, they are still angered about the Kyūbi's attack and have nothing else to take it out on. I'm disappointed in many of the villagers, but not all of them are bad," He said with a weary smile.

"I know Jiji-san... It's just hard to keep that in mind when everyone in sight is either calling me a demon or trying to kill me." He stated coldly.

"I know it is Naruto," He said. Standing up, he put a hand on Naruto's shoulders. "And I can't help but be worried after something like that. If something happened to you, it would be like losing my own grandchild." He said with a fatherly smile.

Naruto stared up at the Hokage with wide eyes. The Hokage thought of him as his own grandchild? He knew they were close, but he had never considered someone could care so much about him. Before he could react, the Hokage had embraced Naruto and for several seconds all Naruto could do was stand shocked. Eventually, when his brain registered what the Hokage was doing, he returned the embrace tightly. The Hokage chuckled and put a hand on Naruto's head.

"I care for you a lot Naruto, and I don't want anything to happen to you. Promise me that you won't do anything like that again." He said with so much warmth Naruto was sure this must be what having a father was like.

"I promise, Jiji-san... I won't do anything like that again..." He said in return.

"Good," The Hokage said, releasing Naruto from his embrace. "On a lighter note, you've already completed the infamous 'Tora the Cat' Mission. Succeeding in that mission is kind of a 'Rite of Passage' for many of the Jounin in the village. That demonic cat gives even high Chunin some trouble," He said with a chuckle. "How _did _you find that cursed cat anyway?"

Happy about the change of subject, Naruto gave him a smirk. "Trade secret Jiji-san! You'll have to figure it out yourself," Naruto replied.

The Hokage sweat-dropped. He had been hoping to find out a way to catch the damn cat in less than an hour... The last record had been set my Minato, though nobody could figure out how he did it. Oh well, like father like son, right?

"Anyway, you can go now Naruto. As long as you don't pull anymore stunts like that!" He said sternly.

"I know, Jiji-san. Don't worry about me, I'm a ninja now! Ninja know how take care of themselves." He said with a smirk as he left the Hokage's office, feeling much better that he had before he had entered. He quickly jumped to the rooftops and made his way to his apartment. Hopefully the villagers hadn't trashed it again...

He entered his apartment, which was now looking much better since he could use Shadow Clones to clean the place up and he had a better source of income than the monthly stipend he used to get, took a quick shower, and put several cups of instant ramen to cook. While it cooked, he pondered what he would train on. He needed better chakra control, that was a certainty, and his taijutsu could use some work, but what could he do about ninjutsu? Oh well, he figured he'd just play it by ear.

He scarfed down the ramen in a matter of seconds and his hunger still hadn't been satisfied, but he'd just go to Ichiraku's after training. He was about to leave his apartment, figuring he should go to the library to get some reading material on chakra control, taijutsu, and possibly ninjutsu, when he opened the door and immediately noticed a scroll on the ground with several steaming cups of ramen next to it.

His eyes lit up at the prospect of free ramen and he immediately swiped up the scroll and the ramen and went back inside. He was about to get started on the ramen when he suddenly grew suspicious. Who would give him free ramen? It was probably poisoned in an attempt to kill him, he was smarter than that, damn it!

He guessed he might never get over his obsession with ramen.

He decided to read the scroll and see if there were any clues in there. He carefully opened the scroll – meaning he held it at arms length and threw it open, hoping it wouldn't explode – and scanned the contents, his eyes immediately going wide.

_~Naruto,_

_I know you're wondering what the hell all of this is, so I'll do my best to explain. First of all, the ramen is NOT poisoned, drugged, or modified in any way, so chow down. I know you've just figured out the secret to the Shadow Clone Jutsu for training, and if you use a single Shadow Clone while you train, you will effectively double your progress as you will get twice as much done than you would've normally. This technically means that if you use one hundred shadow clones then you will progress one hundred times faster. I know you're about to go training, so I've included some exercises and techniques that may help._

_Keep following your dream and make sure to train hard so you can prove to the entire village that you are an exceptional shinobi!_

_~Your Guardian Angel_

_PS. I'm going to be sending you more of these scrolls, so make a log of the dates you get them and what they say (jut trust me, it'll help in the long run!)_

Naruto finished reading and immediately tried one of the bowls of ramen. When he didn't immediate get sick he figured whoever had written the letter was telling the truth and the ramen was safe to eat. Once the ramen was gone (which had taken all of twenty seconds) he proceeded to scan the exercises and techniques the scroll had mentioned.

_~Water Walking Exercise - This is much like the tree-walking exercise, except you'll be using it to walk on water. The process is almost exactly the same as the tree-walking exercise, but this time it's much harder. Instead of one consistent amount of chakra, you'll need to constantly change the amount of chakra you're using, since the water is almost never still. This is only recommended once you master the tree-walking exercise._

_~Weight exercise - For this exercise you need something heavy (preferably something you can actually lift!). You make the object stick to your hand (or any body part, really) using chakra, like you're walking up a tree, and then extend said body part, holding the object to your body as long as you can. This can help with chakra control, chakra reserves (Though it's not like you need any more chakra at the moment), and even physical strength. It is commonly used with leaves or sand, but can be done with heavier objects as well._

_~You should start using weights to increase you speed, strength, and endurance. You can ask Kakashi about getting some; he should know someone who can get you a very good pair._

_~I also recommend you also ask Kakashi what your Chakra Nature is. If you're not sure what that is, then check out some of the books listed below. Once you learn that, you'll be able to train for jutsu of your nature, which is considerably easier._

Below the list of exercises was a second list, considerably larger than the note, this time of books. It including where they were found and why he should get them. He found the one on chakra nature that was mentioned above and picked out a few more scrolls on chakra control and manipulation. He picked a few taijutsu scrolls out of the list too. With that he got a scroll and something to write with and recorded the date and the general contents of the scroll, and left the house for the library and then the training grounds, though he couldn't help but feel he was forgetting something.

Naruto approached the doors of one of the many libraries in Konoha. He had never been in a library for more than five minutes, considering he never really thirsted for knowledge and none of the academy teachers - aside from Iruka - would give him a pass for books and scrolls on ninja arts. Upon entering the library a dusty smell assaulted his nostrils. It wasn't unpleasant, but he really thought this place could use some air freshener or something.

The librarian looked up and noticed who had just entered the library. She glared at Naruto, but went back to her work, every so often shooting him an evil glance. The first thing Naruto noticed was that the librarian had pink hair. He could only think of one person who had pink hair, but it wasn't Sakura, so he figured she was a relative or something.

He checked his list of reading material and looked at the isles. After over fifteen minutes of searching and finding not even one book he was looking for, he resigned himself to asking the librarian for help.

He approached her cautiously. She definitely looked like Sakura, only older, so they must have been related.

He was forced to wait for several very awkward and nerve-wracking seconds while the librarian just ignored him. He cleared his throat politely. She sighed and looked up with disgust.

"What do you want?" She said maliciously. Naruto winced. Her voice was screechy and grating, even worse than Sakuras.

"I was wondering if you could help me find some scrolls," He said politely, holding up the list of reading material.

She angrily swiped the list out of his hands. Naruto was scared she would destroy it and was beginning to berate himself on his mistake of not making a copy when she shoved the list back into his face.

"You don't have the proper rank to get these," She said coldly. "You must be of at least genin rank to get these."

"Well I am a genin, so take me to the damn scrolls!" He said angrily. She didn't think she could actually tell him otherwise, did she?

"You must be wearing your ninja headband to prove your rank or you will not be allowed entry to the ninja section of the library." She said smugly.

This made Naruto pause. He reached up to feel his headband, and soon found it wasn't there. He had taken it off when he had taken the shower and forgotten to put it back on. He glared at the pink haired librarian, who looked at him with relish. He began making his way out of the library to get the damn headband when a familiar voice made him stop.

"Naruto?" He spotted another head of pink hair in an isle of bookshelves and almost sprinted out of the library. However, she hadn't hit him (or at least she hadn't slugged him in the face like she usually did) since the day they became genin, so he decided to give her a chance.

"Yeah, Sakura?" He said apathetically. She winced a little.

"I heard what my mother said to you..." She explained. "I can help you find the scrolls you're looking for..." She said quietly. So the librarian from hell was her mother... He could see who she took after in the family. Naruto looked at her curiously. She squirmed a little under his gaze, until he finally relented and nodded his head.

She led him through the maze of a library (seriously, who would make a library like this? It's like it was designed to confuse you!) and they came upon a hallway in the back. She channeled some chakra into the a door partway down the hall and it opened to reveal a large area full of bookshelves containing scrolls and books full of information and techniques for ninja of various ranks. He handed her the list of reading material and she set out to find everything. After several minutes she came back with an armful of scrolls and books. She set them all down on a nearby table with a dull thud.

"That's a lot of reading, Naruto! I've never seen you read this much... come to think of it I've never really seen you reading anything but the ramen menu at Ichiraku's," She said, chuckling.

"Well, I've got to train a lot harder now that I'm an official ninja of Konoha, right? I'll be able to train a lot faster if I actually know what I'm doing instead of just trying to figure it out on my own, like I did in the academy."

"What do you mean 'Like you did in the academy'?" She questioned curiously.

Naruto's face darkened. "The instructors at the academy never really told me what to do, never really taught me anything, actually." He began. He could already see her starting to protest, but he held up his hand and she fell silent again, albeit reluctantly. "They would always say I had done something wrong, or decide to punish me for something I had done a week before and send me out into the hall. Half of the time it was because I hadn't done the previous day's homework. They wouldn't let me stay after to hear what they had said and nobody would give me passes for the library, so I could never really train. The most I could do was ask one of my classmates what we were supposed to work on and hope they actually told me truth instead of telling me some bullshit story so that they could watch me screw up in class the next day."

He noticed Sakura looking a little down now. As smart as she was, he figured she had immediately noticed the pattern when he told her.

"I'm sorry, Naruto..." She said quietly. He gave her a puzzled look.

"For what? You had nothing to do with it! Well, the constant physical abuse didn't help much, but apparently I have amazing endurance, so it didn't really affect me much." He said nonchalantly. He glanced at her and saw she had hung her head down.

"But I could have helped you, or at least noticed what was happening! I feel so stupid for not seeing it now..." She trailed off.

"Frankly, you probably wouldn't have helped me even if you had noticed," He said, chuckling. "You're always either fawning over Sasuke or wailing on me."

"I know... but now that we're on a team I've gotten to know you a little better, at least I like to think I have. You're not as bad as everyone makes you out to be," She got a far off look in her eyes. "You don't deserve a lot of what the villagers do to you, I've come to see that much at least." She said. From the look in her eyes, there was something she wasn't telling him, but he really didn't feel like trying to figure out what it was. At least it sounded like she cared now.

He performed a simple henge, turning into a normal, unremarkable civilian, and gathered up the books. Sakura, to his surprise, actually helped him. She explained that he still needed to check out the books, and it'd be a lot easier if she checked got them checked out in her name and not Naruto's, as he wouldn't need to show any ID.

They returned to the front desk and Sakura handed her mother the books. She looked up, noticed Naruto (who was still using a henge, of course) standing there and smiled at him as she checked the books out for him. He didn't return it.

When they were out of the library and far enough down the street, Naruto thanked Sakura and she handed him the books. He summoned a shadow clone and he and his doppelganger took the books and leapt to the rooftops, en route to his apartment. When he got there he summoned several more shadow clones and told half of them to traverse the village looking for a good, secluded training spot, and told the other half to read the newly acquired library books. He himself left the apartment to train physically. He assumed that while a shadow clone would transfer memories when it dispelled, it wasn't able to transfer physical properties (Which is why he would never feel any pain or physical exhaustion when they dispelled, he would only get the _memory_ of having it). Therefore, he needed to train physically, while the shadow clones would do all the mental training, like ninjutsu and reading.

After a few hours, which consisted of running several laps around the village and strenuous amount of pushups and sit-ups, he started gaining memories from his shadow clones. The first few had just finished some of the shorter scrolls, while another had found a suitable spot for training. After another hour, more memories started coming in consisting of various places to train and the contents of various books. He decided it was time to head back to his apartment and began his journey home.

When he entered his apartment, he dispelled the Shadow Clones he had made so that he would regain the memories.

He immediately got a massive headache.

Ok... So maybe dispelling _all_ of the clones at the same time wasn't such a good idea... He'd need to remember that from now on.

After recovering from the surprise headache, he summoned another batch of shadow clones and told them to get reading. He also sent several groups out to each of the suitable training spots his clones had found during his physical training. If he used shadow clones to train while he was asleep, he could excel even faster. The only uncertainty was if sleeping would stop any memories from entering the mind. Whatever the case, he'd find out in the morning. He performed his nightly rituals and promptly went to sleep.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

When he woke up the next morning, the first thing he noticed was the fact that his alarm hadn't woken him up with his obnoxious beeping. He could actually enjoy the morning, instead of having to buy a new alarm every other night. This meant that he was beginning to train his body to wake up at a certain time, which meant he wouldn't need to use his alarm every day, which was good, sinc–

_BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BE–_

He immediately smashed the annoying hunk of metal. Ok, so he still had a ways to go before he could ditch the damn alarm clock...

He did a mental health check and found that he felt perfectly fine, as well as searching through memories and finding several from last night that had come from shadow clones, so he assumed that he could use them while he was sleeping. It did feel pretty strange though, since he had memories of training and sleeping at the same time... Ugh. He didn't like thinking in the morning.

He performed his morning rituals, ate a quick breakfast, summoned another batch of shadow clones to read what the others hadn't finished (since some of the scrolls and books were _huge_!), quickly glanced over the note he had gotten the previous day, and left for his teams daily meeting place. He'd have to remember to ask Kakashi about getting some training weights, as well as finding out what his elemental affinity was. If he were lucky, he'd have more than one elemental affinity, which would make training much easier.

He summoned another batch of shadow clones and sent them off to the training areas he had discovered were best the previous night. The more training he could get in a single day the better, right?

He soon approached the small footbridge where his team always gathered that overlooked a large stream. Sasuke and Sakura never came on time on the assumption that Kakashi would be late, which he usually was. However, this morning was different. Naruto immediately noticed Kakashi standing on the bridge, reading his little orange book. He approached his chronically tardy sensei and raised an eyebrow in question when he looked up.

"What?" Kakashi asked innocently. "Is there something on my face?"

"You're on time," Naruto said. "You're never on time."

"Oh, that," He said off-handedly. "I don't get side-tracked _every_ day, Naruto, sometimes I get lucky." He said with an eye-smile.

"Lucky my ass..." Naruto mumbled. Kakashi's eye-smile grew. "I should probably let you know that Sasuke and Sakura won't be here for at least a couple hours." Naruto said irritably.

"Hmm? Why's that?" Kakashi questioned.

They haven't shown up on time for at least the last five days," He said. "They always assume you'll be a few hours late, so they sleep in."

"Well, that just means you get more training done while they sleep," Kakashi said concluded. Naruto thought Kakashi was smirking, but it was hard to tell with the face mask.

"Yeah, I guess that's true," Naruto agreed. He figured now was as good a time as any to ask Kakashi about the weights and chakra nature. "Do you know anything about training weights?" He questioned.

This elicited a surprised look from Kakashi. "Hmm? Where did you hear about those?"

_'Crap. Should I tell him about the scroll I got yesterday?' _He thought quickly. _'No, I probably shouldn't tell Kakashi-sensei or Jiji-san until I know who sent the scrolls or what their motives are. I'm not sure what their reactions will be yet...'_

"I happened to pass by an equipment store and they had some training weights on display," He said with a shrug. "I was interested, but I figured I shouldn't get them until I know more about them, which is why I'm asking you."

Kakashi could tell there was something Naruto wasn't telling him, but he figured if it got Naruto into using weights it probably wasn't that big of a deal.

"Well, I don't really know much about them myself, since I've never really used them, but I think I know someone who does..." He pondered aloud. Gai would probably know about training weights, being a Taijutsu specialist. He was pretty sure he had also outfitted one of his genin with a set, so he probably knew where to find them, too. However, said genin was also frighteningly similar to Gai in all but age, so he was a little hesitant to send Naruto to him for training. He didn't want to risk Naruto coming back in green spandex, sporting a bowl cut, and shouting about youthful spirit and eternal rivals. Who the hell wakes up his 'Eternal Rival' for a 'Youthful Challenge' at five-thirty in the morning anyway? "How about I ask him about helping you the next time I see him?" He offered. He probably wouldn't have to wait that long, Gai usually tracked him down for a challenge every few days.

"Sure, that'd be great Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said, nodding. "Could you also tell me how to find out what my chakra nature is? I read a few books and scrolls that mentioned it was easier to learn and perform jutsu of the same chakra nature as the user and I was wondering what mine was." He was thoughtfully. This almost shocked Kakashi. Very few genin even knew about Chakra natures, much less how it affected jutsu.

"Well, there is a way to find out, but it requires a certain type of paper and I don't have any on me." He said. "I could go and get some of mine if you'd like, I was planning on finding out the team's chakra natures anyway, so you'll just get a head start." He said shrugging. Naruto nodded his compliance and Kakashi vanished in a column of smoke.

Naruto hadn't even waited a minute before another column of smoke signaled Kakashi's return.

"You definitely have to teach me that jutsu Kakashi-sensei, walking here from my apartment every day sucks!" He complained.

"I'll teach it to you later, when you have better chakra control," Kakashi said dismissively. "Besides, the walking builds character." He said with another eye-smile. Naruto pouted in disappointment, causing Kakashi to chuckle a little. "Anyway, here's what I had to get," He said, fishing around in one of the pockets lining his vest and pulling out a small rectangle of paper. "This is a special kind of paper that reacts to chakra. All you have to do is hold it and channel some of you chakra into it," He continued as he handed the paper to Naruto. "If you have an affinity for fire, the paper will burn. Water will make the paper damp, earth will turn the paper to dust, wind will cut the paper, and lightning will crumple the paper. The more intense the reaction the stronger your affinity is and the more your training and jutsu will be affected. Go ahead and try it."

Naruto channeled some of his chakra into the paper. To both his and Kakashi's surprise, the paper was cut in half, and one half of it burst into flames while the other continued to be cut into pieces as it floated down to the ground, first in half, then in fourths, then eighths, and so on. Naruto looked up and noticed Kakashi was staring at him, his eyes slightly wider than normal.

"So... was that good, or bad? Because from the look you're giving me, it could be either one," Naruto said nervously.

"That was... very good Naruto. Very good indeed." Kakashi said absently. He seemed to shake himself out of his thoughts. "You have two elemental affinities, both wind and fire. That's uncommon in most younger ninja, but it's not exceedingly rare since having at least two chakra natures is a requirement for Jounin. What _is _rare is how strong your affinity for each of them is," He said with a hint of awe in his words. "I've never seen such an intense reaction from the paper before. Even the Uchiha, who commonly had a strong affinity with fire, don't coax such intense flames. And the fact that the paper kept cutting itself after you had released it meant that your wind chakra was very potent. That means that wind and fire jutsu should be much easier for you to learn and master than jutsu of other chakra natures, like water, earth, or lightning."

Naruto nodded in understanding. "Ok, so I should start with wind and fire jutsu first, since they'll be the easiest to learn and master."

"Well, I wouldn't recommend starting on elemental jutsu until you learn some chakra control exercises. With the amount of raw chakra you have, you don't get tired easily, but you have a much harder time controlling the amount you release when channeling it. If you work on your chakra control, learning jutsu will become much easier. For example, I happen to know you had trouble with the Bunshin," Kakashi said, which made Naruto scowl in irritation. "The Bunshin uses a very small amount of chakra. An academy student with relatively small reserves will learn the jutsu easier than one like you, with an incredibly large reserve of chakra, since the more chakra you have, the more you naturally output. This makes using a very small amount of chakra very hard for people with a large amount of it. It's the equivalent of trying to fill a cup with a waterfall without spilling. You need to learn better chakra control to use the right amount, or you'll overpower the jutsu and it won't work like it's supposed to." Kakashi told Naruto. Naruto nodded in understanding. At least he finally knew why he could never make a Bunshin; he was always using too much chakra.

"If you learn good chakra control, you can maximize your efficiency when using jutsu, making them more powerful for a smaller amount of chakra. For one like you, with an extremely large reserve of chakra, this means you could fight for hours without tiring, if not more." Kakashi finished. He could practically see Naruto's eyes shining.

"Thanks Kakashi-sensei, that'll help a lot with my training!" Naruto said, beaming. With that Naruto jumped off of the bridge onto the shore of the stream, creating several dozen shadow clones as he landed. He quickly dispelled one of them (To transfer what he had learned to the clones that were already training) and set half of them to work on the water walking exercise he had found in the scroll he had gotten the previous night. He had the other half use a variation of the second technique the scroll had mentioned. Instead of holding an object out and using chakra to hold it there, he had his clones stand upside down on some of the nearby tree braches, aiming to stay there as long as they could without losing control and falling. Walking along the branch also helped to make it harder. Naruto himself began his physical training once again, starting with push-ups.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

Kakashi watched with interest as he witnessed Naruto training. He seemed to have figured out that Shadow Clones transferred all of their memories upon their disruption, which could dramatically accelerate the rate that one could train. Kakashi had never been able to truly test his theory, since he didn't have a large enough reserve of chakra to make enough Clones to experiment with it. However, Naruto seemed to be utilizing it to its fullest. Within just a couple hours Naruto had learned the water walking technique and nearly had it mastered to the point where it was automatic. He was currently having a spar with several dozen of his clones on the surface of the water. Every now and then one of them would stumble when their foot sunk in, but it was truly remarkable how fast he was progressing. If Naruto could keep training like this... Well, the sky's the limit.

As the final Clone was dispelled, Naruto came ambling up the footbridge again. He looked a little roughed up from his spar, but his breathing wasn't very heavy and he didn't look too tired after having done two hours of training.

"Sasuke and Sakura should be here any minute, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto informed Kakashi. "Can we take a C-Rank mission today? I'm tired of doing chores for people, considering most of them just tell me I'm doing it wrong anyway."

"I suppose we could," He said thoughtfully. "Your teamwork has improved considerably since you became a genin, so I believe the team could handle a C-Rank. Whether we take one or not depends on what's available though. Some C-Rank missions are harder than others."

"That's fine with me, as long as we don't get stuck pulling up weeds, walking dogs, or – Kami forbid – chasing Tora again." Naruto told him. Kakashi merely chuckled, much to Naruto's chagrin. A familiar voice broke him of his ranting.

"Kakashi-sensei? When did you get here?" Sakura questioned as she strolled up the bridge along-side Sasuke, who merely looked curious.

"I was here two hours ago, at our assigned meeting time." Kakashi said all too cheerfully, giving the two an eye-smile. "Where were _you_?" He interrogated.

"I was s-sleeping, because I assumed you'd..." She trailed off nervously.

"You assumed I'd be late and that I wouldn't know if you weren't here on time?" He finished for her. Both Sasuke and Sakura had the dignity to look ashamed.

"A ninja should never assume or expect things to happen. If you expect things to happen, you won't be prepared for when things don't happen like you thought they would. While you two were sleeping, Naruto here was training for two hours and even learned a new exercise." The praise (At least that's how Naruto thought of it) caused said genin to grin. "I hope this is a lesson for both of you." Kakashi lectured. Sasuke just scowled a little. Sakura pouted but didn't say anything.

"Anyway, since Naruto has suggested it, we're going to try and get a C-Rank mission today." Kakashi informed the two new arrivals. Both Sasuke and Sakura brightened up a little at this. The entire team – Kakashi included – was getting tired of the mundane D-Ranked mission that even Academy drop-outs could complete no problem. With that uplifting comment, they journey to the Hokage's Office in silence.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

Naruto was the first person (Besides Kakashi and their client of course) to arrive at the gate they had appointed as their meeting place before they debarked on their mission. Kakashi was currently chatting with their client – some old bridgebuilder from wave country – to pass the time.

When they had reached the Hokage's office, Kakashi had questioned the Hokage about getting a C-Rank mission. Upon confirmation that their teamwork had improved and Kakashi deemed them ready for it, the Hokage had assigned them an escort mission to wave. They were to escort Tazuna, their client, to wave country and protect him while he finished the bridge he was currently working on. Kakashi had given them an hour to prepare for their departure and dismissed the team, telling them where to meet.

Naruto just stopped by his apartment briefly and gathered more ninja tools. He didn't really use anything else, so he packed some extra ramen and supplies in his travel pack before starting for the assigned meeting point.

When Sasuke and Sakura finally showed up (The latter with only a few minutes to spare), they departed on their first mission out of the village, as well as their first C-Rank mission.

The first few hours were gruelingly boring for Naruto. There was nothing to do! He had already created several dozen more clones when he had stopped by his apartment (Since the first batch had helped _a lot _in the two hours he was waiting for the others), there was no way he'd start a conversation with Sasuke or Sakura, and to his surprise they seemed to feel the same way.

However, about three and a half hours into the journey, Naruto stepped in a puddle. The water came up to his ankles and he nearly fell flat on his face.

Now, normally this woudn't concern Naruto in the least. However, the first things Naruto noticed was that the water had barely moved at all, and his foot barely even felt wet. He was _sure _he had seen his foot go ankle deep into that water... That caused Naruto to think. When was the last time it had rained? He couldn't remember getting any weather for the past few weeks. So then how could there be a puddle in the middle of the dirt road they were travelling on? It didn't add up. He caught Kakashi's eye and noticed he gave him a slight nod. Kakashi seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

The others, however, noticed nothing.

"Come on gaki, I don't have all day, I'd like to get back to Wave sometime this year!" The old bridgebuilder said gruffly. Kakashi gave a nod and Naruto recovered and they continued walking, with the exception that Kakashi had put his little orange book away and had shifted his body ever so slightly so that he could move in any direction on a moments notice.

After several more minutes of walking, the tranquil feel of the journey was marred by the sound of metal on metal as two large chains came out of the surrounding forest and bound Kakashi before the genin could react. In a moment two assailants had come out of the trees and pulled on the chains fiercely, brutally ripping their sensei apart. Sakura screamed, Sasuke looked shocked, and Tazuna looked scared shitless. Naruto, however, noticed that the 'blood' that came as a result of the attack wasn't really blood at all, it was some kind of substitute. Naruto had seen his own blood enough that he knew the stuff by sight, and Kakashi – being a Jounin – couldn't have been that easy to take out, especially if he _knew_ about the assailants in the first place.

But when Kakashi failed to reappear, he realized he'd need to take action. He quickly summoned over a dozen shadow clones and entered the fray, aiming to take at least one of them down. Sasuke saw this and – not wanting to be outdone – moved to deafeat the other of the assailants. In minutes, both Sasuke and Naruto had finished their respective fights and were standing over a beaten and unconsious opponent. Sasuke looked a little roughed up, but nothing much to worry about. Naruto (The real one at least) hadn't even taken a hit, the shadow clones had overwhelmed the would-be assassin fairly quickly.

Kakashi suddenly reappeared and took each of the assassins in an arm. Sasuke raised an eyebrow in question, while Sakura just sent Kakashi an accusing glare. Tazuna just shook his head and muttered something under his breath.

"Well, good job guys," Kakashi praised with another of his classic eye-smiles. "If I'm correct, these two have been dubbed the 'Demon Brothers', and they have a hefty bounty on them. You just defeated a pair of Chunin level rouge ninjas, congradulations."

Sasuke smirked at the praise and Naruto gave him a wide grin.

"However, since this is a C-Rank mission, there shouldn't have been _any _opposing ninja at all. Maybe a few bandits, but nothing more than that," Kakashi continued. He looked at Tazuna. "I'm afraid I have to ask why the 'Demon Brothers' are after you Tazuna."

Tazuna just sighed. "Looks like I can't really keep it a secret anymore, huh? Wave country is currently opressed by a tyrant named Gato. He controls all shipping routes, making it almost impossible for anyone but him to get anything in or out of the country, which is destroying the economy. He basically rules the land with an iron fist. Once the bridge I'm building is completed, there will be an easier way to the mainland, breaking Gato's control on the country and hopefully saving it at the same time." He grimaced. "Gato doesn't seem to like that very much."

"I can see why," Kakashi responded. "So what should this mission actually be ranked then?" He questioned.

"I couldn't afford anything but a C-Rank, so I took what I could get, but it'd be classified as an A-Rank mission." He said grimly.

Kakashi sighed. "In that case, we'll have to turn around and head back to the village. An A-Rank is much too ardous for a team of genin."

Naruto pouted. "Come on, Kakashi-sensei! We just beat a pair of Chunin with no problems! I don't want to have to say my first mission out of the village was a fluke!"

Kakashi sighed once more. "Well, if all of you feel the same way, I guess we could just finish the mission, though I _am_ going send a request for a little backup to the Hokage."

Naruto and Sasuke both nodded, while Sakura looked determined.

"In any case, I'm going to go turn the bounty in to the nearest collection station. They're worth more alive than dead, so I'm glad you two didn't kill them. I'll also send out that request while I'm there, so I should be back in a few minutes." Kakashi said. With that, he disappeared in a pillar of smoke.

"I really need him to teach me that jutsu..." Naruto mumbled.

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

_Timeskip: 2 days later_

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

Naruto woke up much more peacefully than he had the previous few mornings, since there was no alarm clock in the room (He had checked to make sure of that, damn things were annoying). He sat up slowly and stretched, yawning wide and grunting when he both heard and felt a crack in his back. His entire body felt sore.

"I guess that fight with Zabuza took a little more out of me than I expected." He mumbled groggily. He rubbed his face with his hands and slowly pushed himself to a wobbly standing position. If _he _felt like this after a good nights rest with his amazingly fast regeneration, he didn't want to know how Sasuke felt. Then again, Naruto did take the most damage of the three genin. He noticed Sasuke and Sakura were already up, Kakashi still sleeping of course (Bieng trapped in a sphere of water for half an hour while you fear for your genins lives can take a lot out of you), so he headed downstairs to find everyone eating a breakfast that Tsunami had made. He quickly took a seat and began to chowed down. This stuff tasted almost as good as ramen! Almost. He thanked Tsunami for the meal in between bites, and she returned his gratitude with a smile.

After about a half hour Kakashi came down the stairs on a pair of crutches. He claimed he was feeling much better and that he would train the three genin for a few days, so that if they encountered any more enemy ninja they would have a better chance of survival. Both Kakashi and Naruto thought that something was up with the Hunter-nin that had taken Zabuza's body. Kakashi because the Hunter-nins were supposed to destroy the body before going anywhere, to make sure nobody could take the body and learn secrets about the missing-nins home village from it. Naruto because... Well, Naruto just had a gut feeling that something was up with that Hunter-nin, and his gut feeling was usually right.

After breakfast was finished, Kakashi lead them into a forested area near a small river a ways away from Tazuna's house.

"Since you've already mastered the tree-walking exercise," Kakashi began, "I guess I'll just have to teach you the next exercise. This is called the water-walking exercise, and is much harder than tree-walking. The concept is the same, but the execution is much harder. You need to constantly adjust the amount of Chakra you are outputting, or you'll either start to sink or get repelled off of the water. Naruto, if you would please demonstrate this?" He continued, raising an eyebrow at Naruto.

Naruto beamed at another chance to teach the others (and a little bit of it was being able to show up Sasuke... Just a little) and demonstrated the technique by walking out onto the water and hopping up and down a few times. The look of awe on Sakura's face and the slight jealousy on Sasuke's only made his grin wider.

Once the other two genin had started training, Naruto approached Kakashi and asked if he could go a little further into the forest to practice several techniques by himself. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at that. When had Naruto gotten techniques to practice? He figured he had gotten them the same way Naruto had learned about training weights and chakra nature.

Kakashi gave him the O.K. to train on his own and Naruto went off to work on the list of techniques he had gotten, looking at the first thing on the list.

_'Hmmmm... Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique... Isn't that the jutsu Sasuke used against Kakashi during the team assessment? Oh well, Better get started!'_

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

_Timeskip: 2 days later (again)_

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

Tsunami was panicking. It had started out as a normal day. Her ninja guests had woken up and she had made a hearty breakfast for them, they had cleaned up and done a few of her daily chores as thanks before they left with her father to head to the bridge.

That was when everything had gone to shit.

Not even twenty minutes after they had left, she heard a knock. The instant she had opened the door, it was thrown open and she was thrown onto the floor. Two men with katanas strapped to their waists had stormed through the door and already had her bound and tied when Inari came down the stairs to investigate the ruckus. Before he could even question what was going on or why his mother was kneeling on the floor with her hands bound behind her and her feet tied together they had moved forward and knocked him out with a swift blow to the head. She could only thank Kami that they hadn't cleaved him in half, or done anything else that would permanently harm him, or she'd have had a mental breakdown.

And so here she was, bound and kneeling in the middle of her living room with her son unconcious on the floor and two intruders eying her hungrily. The shock of the sudden intrusion of her home was beginning to wear off, and there was no mistaking that greedy, lustful look in their eyes. She tried to back away, but it was obvious there was no way she would be able to get away from them. So, Tsunami was panicking. There was nothing else she could really do at the moment.

One of the men moved forward and roughly groped her chest, chuckling menacingly when she resisted as he tried to remove her clothes and his partner moved to join him.

She was just about ready to break down crying when she heard a shout from one of the men along with a sickening metal-on-flesh sound. The man currently trying to tear her bra off whipped his head around so fast he must've gotten whiplash. Standing over his partner's dead body was another man – or at least she thought it was, judging by his size – with a black cloak with red clouds and a straw hat covering hiding his features. The man who had assaulted her cried out and charged forward with a guttural shout, unsheathing his katana. A different katana, however, slick and red with blood, impaled him through his chest before he even knew the new intruder had moved.

The mysterious new invader pulled his sword from his victims chest, allowing him to fall before bringing the tip of his sword down on the man's head. Tsunami squeezed her eyes shut. Tears threated to spill from her eyes. Who was this new intruder? Would he try to rape her like the other two? It was maddening. She opened her eyes quickly as she felt a pull on her legs, which she had pulled up to her chest to try to keep the other two away. She flinched away when she saw the new man only a few feet in front of her and closed her eyes with a whimper, resigning herself to her fate when she felt her binds fall away.

Her eyes flew open in shock and the man proceeded to cut away the bindings holding her hands. She back away from the man, grateful but still wary, and narrowed her eyes when she heard him chuckle softly.

Her eyes widened in shock once again as he raised his hat and revealed his face.

"W-what? N-no, that's... that's not possible, y-you're..."

"Hello, Tsunami. It's been a long time..."

~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~)(|)(~~

Naruto cursed once again as senbon seemed to come out of thin air and turn Sasuke and him into oversized porcupines. He was barely able to stand, while Sasuke had almost gotten their opponent – Haku, if he was correct – several time with his fireballs. Naruto had tried the same tactic but was having no luck. The mist that Zabuza had created wasn't helping matters either. It seemed Sasuke had something besides sheer luck working for him, since he was getting closer every time.

Suddenly, each reflection of Haku shifted once again, taking on a different posture. This one, however, looked different, serious. He realized that none of the senbon, which were mainly used for targeting specific points on the human body, had hit anything vital.

Haku was going _easy_ on them!

His current posture, however, implied otherwise. Everything about his posture – the slight tilt of his head, the position of his hands, the tightly clenched fists – everything screamed danger.

Naruto could do nothing, however. He could barely get on one knee, let alone fight. In the blink of an eye Sasuke was standing in front of him with a dozen more senbon sticking out of him and Haku had been thrown against one of his ice mirrors.

How had Sasuke moved so fast? He had barely seen anything! Last time Naruto had checked, Sasuke's speed was average, high genin at best, what could make him so fast? Naruto wasn't going to question it or complain, though. Maybe Sasuke wasn't such an anti-social teme after all.

"What the hell are you doing, Naruto?" Sasuke questioned his teammate, bringing him out of his thoughts. His voice was raspy and strained.

"Why would you protect me, Sasuke?" Naruto managed to get out as he was struggling to get up and fight.

"I'm not entirely sure..." He raised his head to look at the sky. His voice was growing quieter and quieter. He fell backwards into Naruto, who caught him the best he could without pushing the senbon farther into either of them. "I guess you're the closest thing I have to a friend... dobe..." And with that his body went limp.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted in concern, immediately checking his comrades' pulse.

One second... Two seconds... Three... Nothing. Sasuke was dead. He couldn't be dead. He and Sasuke were supposed to be eternal rivals! He lowered his head.

"Is this the first time you have seen a friend die in combat?" Haku asked. "This is the life of a shinobi..." He said as he merged with another mirror.

Nartuo felt a small surge of power, incredibly similar to the feeling he had gotten when he had walked off the edge of the Hokage Monument.

**"You can shut the fuck up..."**

Haku's eyes widened inside his mask. The boy's voice sounded different. His original voice was still there, but it was... surrounded, by something much deeper, more powerful.

**"I... I never really liked Sasuke..." **Naruto began. **"But he was my comrade... And he didn't deserve to die."**

The small surge of power Naruto had felt was growing. It was the Kyūbi's power. He knew that much. Frankly, he didn't care.

It felt good. Very good.

Naruto knew what he was going to do now. He raised his head and looked directly at Haku.

**"I'm gonna kill you..." **He growled out.

Another burst of power, this one much stronger. So strong, in fact, that it began disrupting the jutsu that Zabuza had used.

An evil, crimson chakra exploded out of his body, accelerating the disruption of Zabuza's justu. The senbon flew out of his body and the wounds caused by them sealed themselves shut. He lowered himself onto all fours, growling and snarling.

Haku's eyes widened further. The boy's power was growing much too fast to be natural! He had to end this now before he got too strong.

He quickly threw several dozen senbon at the boy in a matter of seconds, all of them hitting their marks, but it was to no avail. The boy should've been paralyzed from the neck down, but he just flared his new, evil chakra and the senbon were ejected from his body just like the others.

"Naruto!"

A shout of concern made Haku glance over out of the Ice Prison. The mist Zabuza had created had almost totally dissipated now. His pink-haired teammate was the one who had called out to him. Kakashi – the one Zabuza has said he would take down – was looking at the scene wide-eyed... was that fear in the elite Jounin's eyes? Zabuza had almost completely forgotten about his opponent in favor of gaping at the scene before him. He had never felt such... evil power from anyone or anything.

Naruto barely registered his teammate's shout, found the new mirror Haku had moved to and in a fraction of a second he was only inches from the mirror. With a single punch, he completely shattered the mirror Haku was occupying. Haku made a split-second decision, coming out of one of the mirror's shards to finish the boy.

Unfortunately, Naruto had other ideas. He flipped out of the way and caught Haku by the wrist before he could move to get away. The sheer power emanating from the boy was astounding! He could _feel_ the rage, the bloodlust.

This was not the same boy.

A hard hit to the face sent Haku flying back several dozen feet.

Naruto charged forward as Haku rose up back onto his feet, his mask falling to the bridge in pieces.

**"DIE!"**

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~A/N And... Cliffhanger! :D Consider this a new years present, since it's twice as long as last chapter :D As always, review are welcome. Also, anyone who can guess who the mystery man is gets a cookie (A delicious imaginary one of course) :P And just to clear up a few things that reviewers brought up, Naruto isn't going to instantly change from fake to serious Naruto. It takes time, and the 'fake' Naruto will always influence his actions just a little. Nobody can be serious ALL the time, it's just not healthy :P I'm trying to make this at least a little realistic (or as realistic as you can get with ninja and jutsu).


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